Darkness Eater
by E.S. Simeon
Summary: In the event where Daisuke loses V-mon permanently, he is transported elsewhere... and now Daisuke must push forward to solve an unknown mystery before it can consume anybody else like V-mon...
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This piece is set at post-Adventure 02 and after _Natsu e no Tobira_ (3rd Drama CD). There will be most likely to be background and references to those two pieces. If you do not know about _Natsu e no Tobira_, there is a fic around the site under "The Doorway to Summer" that has a fairy accurate translation to the CD Drama.

**A/N (2):** Do not be afraid to flame if something is seriously wrong or out of place, because I am certainly not perfect.

**A/N (3):** Normal text is actions, descriptions, etc. While _Italics_ are thoughts and **bold **messages or Telepath voices.

**Disclaimer:** I obviously do not own Digimon. If I did, Tamers would have been a huge love-story between Takato and Ruki. Anyway, the disclaimer applies to all chapters in this fic.

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**Prologue: A Conclusion**

Daisuke and Chibimon arrived back at home in their room. The trip to New York not only took an unexpected turn for them, but taxed their energy for the trips there and back as well. Flying down at his bed, Daisuke let out a sigh of relief, finally getting his much-needed rest.

"Ahhh... home at last" Daisuke said, smile forming on his face.

"Yeah... that trip was not pleasant... nor was our sightseeing..." Chibimon said, also flying down onto the bedside.

Almost getting into sleep, Daisuke and Chibimon's serene moment ends by a beeping sound on Daisuke's D-Terminal. Sitting up and opening the D-Terminal, Daisuke read the message.

**Daisuke,**

**I need your help! The others are unavailable at the moment**

**and there seems to be some sort of strange occurrence at this**

**place of the DigiWorld. Please come with V-mon, we could use**

**some help.**

**-Takeru.**

Daisuke sighed as he finished the message, Chibimon falling back down onto the bed facedown in response.

"Well, some summer this is..." Daisuke thought as he got up from his bed and got his D-3 ready while Chibimon still lay facedown on the bed. Being ready with his D-3, Daisuke grabbed Chibimon from the back of the head and ran out of his room.

"Daisuke! What are you doing?" Chibimon protested at picking up from his rest.

"Oh com'on! Takeru requested that we help him, and there is nobody else, so we have to go!" Daisuke said in response as he kicked open the door to Jun's room.

Thankfully for Daisuke, Jun was out at the moment so he could get access to his sister's computer with the Digiport. Opening the digiport, Daisuke and Chibimon travelled to the Digital World. Arriving at their place was a desert place area. Looking around their surroundings, Daisuke saw a black mass over the air from farther away to their right.

"Over there!" Daisuke pointed as he and V-mon rushed to the location.

Arriving at the location, Takeru turned around with Patamon with a grim look.

"What's going on here?" Daisuke asked, unknown to the cloud mass over the sky.

"That... seems to be some sort of evil covering over this place, and I have a bad feeling about this..." Takeru trailed off, almost feeling the darkness.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Daisuke said, rushing forward already.

"Alright... I was just afraid to go alone because I am not sure how dangerous it would be, I know I at least need somebody to help me" Takeru responded, catching up to Daisuke.

Daisuke turned around and let out a smiling face to Takeru. "Well, you picked the right person for this job!"

Takeru let out an evil grin, and then responded to Daisuke's statement. "Yeah, you were the last person available, that's why I called you."

"Hey!" Daisuke said in response as Takeru along with Patamon and V-mon laughed at the conversation.

Arriving at the centre, a dark figured emerged from the fog as Daisuke and Takeru with their partners looked in surprise.

The Digimon that came out had six legs along with the top part of the body looking like a human. Other features were that it was black colour all over as well as weak looking.

"Archnemon!" Said Daisuke and Takeru in unison as they looked at the spider Digimon barely standing.

"Ha... do you honestly think that I would be able to be defeated this easily?" Said the spider, rising and looking at the Chosen of Miracle and Hope.

"I thought she was dead, how come...?" Takeru questioned while Daisuke only looked onto the weakened Digimon with one single thought: Destory her.

"It doesn't matter, we'll beat her down!" Daisuke yelled, holding out his D-3 and Takeru followed.

V-mon and Patamon evolved into XV-mon and Angemon and jumped into battle. Archnemon shot out Acid Mist that halted XV-mon and Angemon in their advances and ran up to knock them to the sides. Getting up again, Angemon charged Heaven's Knuckle and shot towards the spider Digimon, knocking it back and XV-mon joined in with an X-Laser that further strike more pain to Archnemon. Archnemon got up and laughed despite the horrible condition or disadvantage situation.

"I may be weak... but you kids don't know what's coming for you..." Archnemon managed to say while raising her hands into the air, causing the dark mass to expand and release a wave of dark energy.

"What the... why is darkness pouring through? What's going on?" Takeru said, looking at the ugly sight of darkness expanding.

Archnemon laugh while releasing another wave of Acid Mist, gaining advantage over the adult form Digimon. Daisuke knew that the dark portal needed to be controlled, but Takeru was thinking differently to the situation.

"XV-mon! Go up and take care of whatever's making this mess!" Daisuke commanded and XV-mon lifts off from the ground to fly towards the cause of the portal.

"Daisuke wait!" Takeru called out, knowing that his power alone could not take on a perfect form enemy alone.

Angemon continued to fight with his rod while Archnemon gained the upper hand advantage. Takeru knew that it would not be possible to continue to evolve again into HolyAngemon since Qinglongmon's DigiCore had only lasted for a short while for that time. Angemon took heavy punches from Archnemon and fell down; adding onto the pain was Archnemon's legs stepping on the angel Digimon. Victory seemed definite for Archnemon when the portal above exploded in a blast of energy. Looking up, XV-mon returns with Daisuke running, the sky starting to return to normal.

"Impossible!" Archnemon said in surprise as Angemon strike her with Holy Rod and knocked her legs out of the way.

As Angemon stood up, Archnemon shouted in anger and delivered a hard punch to Angemon's chest, causing a great deal of pain as the angel flew back and reverted to Patamon.

"Patamon!" Takeru shouted, running to catch his Digimon.

XV-mon flew down at Archnemon and bit the spider with Strong Crunch that brought the spider down.

After taking down the spider, XV-mon and Daisuke stood beside Takeru with the unconscious Patamon.

"Takeru..." Daisuke said, looking down at the worried Chosen.

Takeru stood up with anger boiling inside him. "You! Why did you run off like that, you know we cannot take a perfect form by ourselves! Now Patamon might be dead!" Takeru said in anger.

"Hey, cool down, don't get so angry, we took her out and the portal... no telling what could come out of there..." Daisuke responded, not knowing what to say.

"No... You just don't get it... you never had your Digimon die in front of your face before, so how would you know?" Takeru responded angrily again, almost about to threaten Daisuke.

"Just calm down, I am sure..." Daisuke trailed when a fierce shout became clear to them.

Turning to the direction of the noise, Archnemon used her most deadly attack: Spider Thread. The attacked came in the form of a spear strike and came straight at Patamon; Takeru's eyes widen, but could not reach Patamon in time.

The impact sound echoed throughout the desert area, and when Takeru and Daisuke looked to the sight of attack, they saw XV-mon having the Thread through him.

"You just don't know when to give up huh?" XV-mon said, releasing an X-Laser that shot straight towards Archnemon and blasted the viral-spider into data while falling down and reverting to V-mon.

"V-mon!" Daisuke yelled as he picked up the mortally wounded V-mon in his hands.

V-mon slowly opened his eyes and smiled at Daisuke. "Daisuke... I am sorry it looks like I won't be able to go on..."

"V-mon! Don't say that... you've got to live... and the worst case you'll be reborn right?" Daisuke asked, concern showing over his face.

"Daisuke... I need to tell you something..." V-mon said, his voice weakening.

Daisuke leaned down with his head and V-mon whispered something to Daisuke that caused his eyes to widen. "V-mon..." Daisuke said, sadness filling his voice.

"Sorry..." V-mon said at last, taking one last breath and disappearing.

Silence filled the air as Takeru looked at the unmoving Daisuke looking at where V-mon died. Takeru no longer felt anger from before; instead, fear took the place of his anger. Fear of how his might have caused the event.

Finally, Daisuke broke the silence as he stood up and walked away from Takeru and Patamon. Takeru also stood up with Patamon in his arms and called out. "Daisuke..."

Slowing down a little, Daisuke raised his right hand and put it where his forehead is and pulled off his goggles, tossing them backwards where Takeru caught them. "Daisuke!" Takeru called in, with a tone of urgency in his voice.

Daisuke stopped walking away, but did not turn to face Takeru. Another brief moment silence filled the air before Daisuke spoke. "You're right... I really don't know... my bad, I am sorry..." Daisuke said, continuing to walk away in a faster pace.

Takeru could not muster any words to say as Daisuke walked away, taking off his yellow rubber gloves, tossing them to the side, and exploding into data. Next, Daisuke took off his flame jacket and tossed it in the air, it exploded into data before even reaching the ground. At this point, Patamon started to stir in Takeru's arms and Takeru looked down at his partner.

"Takeru... are you ok?" Patamon asked.

Takeru felt a sharp pain in his heart as Patamon asked the question, knowing that he himself was far from ok.

"Yeah, I am fine..." Takeru managed to say.

"Alright then, is it safe now? Where is Daisuke and V-mon?" Patamon asked.

"Yeah, it's safe now... let's go home..." Takeru responded, ignoring the second question and avoiding eye contact with his partner.

Back at Odaiba in Daisuke's room, Daisuke lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had not eaten much or said much to his family since he came back from the Digi World, and refused to come out of his room.

Daisuke reflected on what V-mon said to him as V-mon disappeared.

_I am an Ancient Digimon, and because of that I won't be reborn because V-mon of my kind no longer exists... besides, the attack destroyed my core data..._ V-mon's words rang in Daisuke's mind as he threw a fist down on the bed.

_V-mon..._ Daisuke thought as feelings of emptiness in his heart chewed on his body, causing a wave of pain. It became clear to him that his role as a Chosen Child is over with V-mon's death. Closing his eyes, Daisuke tried not to think of V-mon, or the day's events. His D-Terminal beeped, and he picked it up and opened the message, if it was Takeru, he would delete it immediately, if it was anybody else trying to comfort him, he would delete it. To his surprise, the message was from Mimi, and the message was not anything about V-mon or the event.

**Daisuke,**

**Something very strange has happened, just a few hours ago, when**

**Nat-chan's Digitama laid there on my desk, it started to shake. I **

**thought the egg was hatching and watched it, but suddenly, the egg**

**glowed a dark blue aura around it and it disappeared! I don't know**

**how, but it vanished into thin air! Do you know what could be the **

**cause of this?**

**-Mimi**

_Interesting... but... I don't think this might be of a concern to me at the moment..._ Daisuke thought as he closed the D-Terminal and tossed it on his desk. Lying down and closing his eyes again, Daisuke tried to sleep._Whatever... might as well not think about Digimon..._

Daisuke's journey to sleep stops when a knocking sound came from his window. Sitting up again, Daisuke looked towards the window; the curtains blocked his vision from seeing who it was. Getting up, Daisuke walked towards the window, opening the curtains and opening the window.

A Small winged Digimon and a white cat Digimon came into his room, and Daisuke recognised the two figures.

"Patamon, Tailmon... what is it?" Daisuke asked, not knowing what the two Digimon would want with him.

"Umm, I just wanted to say that... I'm sorry about what happened to V-mon," Patamon said.

"Daisuke, we're all sorry about the loss, and Takeru also says he's sorry" Tailmon said in her assuring voice.

Silence grew as the two Digimon spoke, and Daisuke was thankful for the darkness of the night to hide his face, knowing that any Digimon related matter would pain him greatly as he thinks back to V-mon. Mustering up his strength, Daisuke replied. "It's fine..."

"Huh?" Patamon questioned at Daisuke's short response.

"It's not Takeru's fault I know... V-mon jumped into that attack for you Patamon. I don't hate Takeru... so tell him not to trouble himself. Also, since you two are here, I might as well give this to you..." Daisuke said, walking to his garbage can and reaching in to pick out two specific items. "Here, catch!" Daisuke said, throwing the two articles to Tailmon and Patamon.

Patamon flew in and caught the black long shaped object with yellow pointing out, the Digimental of Friendship.

Tailmon caught the egg shaped object with a small blade pointing outwards, the Digimental of Courage.

"Daisuke... we can't take these! They are yours!" Tailmon protested.

"And why can't you? They flew out of my D-Terminal shortly after arriving home. I believe I might not be able to use them..." Daisuke said, and then letting out a sigh before continuing. "Anyway, Patamon, don't think you or Takeru is at fault for this accident. I have nothing against you guys, now if you will just let me be for now..." Daisuke trailed off.

Seeing no other purpose to stay and that Daisuke was sure of being grudgeless, Patamon and Tailmon left the room with the Digimental, leaving Daisuke to his much-needed peace.

Daisuke banged his head lightly against the wall, snapping his eyes shut, and tears falling out on his face. These were tears with mixture of sadness and relief. Sad because of such a great loss, but relief at the same time for leaving the past behind himself. Daisuke let out a small laugh as the relief overthrew the sadness emotion.

Falling down onto his bed, Daisuke closed his eyes once again and covered them with his forearm. _Might as well sleep from this and then wake up fresh..._ Daisuke thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

A feeling of coldness washed over Daisuke as he slowly woke up from his slumber. Sitting up, he noticed his current location was not his room. He was sleeping on harder surface. Standing up and looking around, Daisuke could not believe his surroundings. _What is this? _Daisuke thought as the environment unfolded to him.

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	2. Chapter 1

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**Chapter 1: Destiny Revealed**

Daisuke surveyed the area that he mysteriously appeared in. The air around him filled with some mist, making the atmosphere cold. Daisuke's resting place turns out to be dried grass and dirt with sand and rocky areas nearby. Winds also filled the air with coldness beside the nearby ocean of water.

_Where exactly is this place...?_ Daisuke wondered as the winds blew against him, causing him to shiver from the coolness of the wind. Primarily because he only has a pair of shorts with a T-shirt and did not get a chance to change before going into his current location. _This place looks familiar, but I already hate it... why does my summer have to be this cold? Say, __**why**__ am I here anyway? _

Daisuke looked to the right side, and then looked to the left side. Both sides were the same with either dark-coloured trees or scenery, but the dominating feature of the area was the sand in front of him followed by a giant mass of water that is black-colour. Stepping forward into the sand, Daisuke looked at the horizon; there is a blob of white light in the sky, supposedly the sun.

_Wait, I remember now! This is the place where Demon is sealed off... why am I here? Everything looks calm, but something is just not right... how did I get here when I was just sleeping? Hold on, what if Demon appears right now? Without V-mon or anybody, it could be the end of me! But... I don't have anything right now... _Daisuke thought as he remembered that last night when his Digimentals came out of his D-Terminal, in emotional discomfort he swiped everything into the garbage can save the D-Terminal. _Oh well, if I don't have anything then nothing too bad can happen to me... I hope._

Walking off the sand, Daisuke went left of the beach area and onto the rocky areas with concrete and more city-like area. The place was similar to the Odaiba school area except at the area dark fog filled the air with uncertainty. Looking at the random black shrouds around the area, Daisuke began to wonder if he was here because of his cold troubled emotions again or if he was dreaming. Seeing an opening between the beach-area and the urban-like area of this world, Daisuke squeezed through the tight space.

_Maybe I'll find a way out somewhere here... somehow... _Daisuke thought, as he knew it was impossible to get out of places like this without his D-3 or help from someone else. Just as Daisuke was about to pass through the deserted streets of the black world, a loud explosion sound from behind ringed through into him.

Turning around, Daisuke looked back to direction of where he woke up. The rocky area to the right of where he woke up from was an Airdramon darker in colour and more hostile looking. Although Daisuke is unsure whether the Airdramon would come for him, he ran forwards away to safety.

Running ahead, Daisuke discovers an even greater danger at a much closer proximity. As a yellow dragon-like Digimon with a large arm and a brown mask appeared.

_Cyclomon... looks like I'd better run back before..._ Daisuke thought as the Cyclomon turned to spot him. Not wasting another second, Daisuke fled to the opposite direction while a hot laser flew overhead. There was no mistaking it now, the Cyclomon was obviously hostile. As Daisuke ran, the dragon-type Digimon trailed behind him with large thumping footsteps that shook the area nearby.

Daisuke managed to get back to his starting place, puffing from the running. Unfortunately, for Daisuke, Cyclomon appeared shortly, walking as if it knew Daisuke's location. Seeing the hostile creature appearing in near proximity, Daisuke tried to run to his right this time, but stopped as Airdramon flew in the air above him. Daisuke backed off into the sand, with two adult Digimon surrounding him. Daisuke tried to remain calm despite his gnawing fear. _This can't be the end... no way... I refuse to die here!_

"Com'on! Give it your best shot!" Daisuke yelled out in front of the two Digimon as he clenched up his fists and faced the beasts with determination even though there was nothing to back him up.

A black energy ball started to form in Airdramon's open mouth, and Cyclomon started to charge another Hyper Heat. The air became extremely uncomfortable for Daisuke as the two Digimon readied their attacks, but he stood still, still hoping there would be a way out somehow.

Before the Hyper Heat and God Tornado flew in at Daisuke, the sand beneath himself weakened and gave way to a large hole that he fell through.

Daisuke yelled out as he fell down into the seemingly endless abyss, but lost his consciousness before anything else happened.

Back in the Motomiya household, Jun sat down at the couch in discontent.

"That Daisuke... I just know that he went into my room and messed with my computer... all my homework, chat windows, everything... gone! And to make things worse, it's already lunch time and he's still in his room sleeping... yesterday I didn't even get a chance to speak to him because he was all depressed and jetlagged... he'd better have a good explanation for all this..." Jun grumbled to herself.

After ten more minutes of non-interesting Television shows, Jun got impatient. Today none of her friends was available because they already had plans, but worst of all, the Motomiya parents requested Jun to clean up the house a little. Standing up in indignation, Jun slowly made her way to Daisuke's door. She did not care if the boy was asleep or not, she was going to kick open the door and get her much needed answers.

Knocking hard once, Jun waited a few seconds. With no reply coming, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Alright! Get up, you..." Jun trailed off as she noticed the empty bed and stillness of the room. "Huh? Since when did he leave his room?" Jun wondered.

In the world of the Dark Ocean, deep down in a cave-like area lies Daisuke, unconscious from his fall from the beach hole.

**Daisuke...**

Daisuke started stirring as he heard the voice echo in his head, he twisted and turned.

**Daisuke, are you there?**

Moving in discomfort, Daisuke managed to open his eyes a little, but shut them again.

**Daisuke! I am here!**

Upon hearing the voice clearly, Daisuke sprang up from his unconscious state. Looking around the area, the save area structure is mostly rock and with some water around. Walls of rocks except the direction he faces surround Daisuke's wake-up location. The hole that Daisuke fell down from gave off enough light to the area that a flashlight is not required to see.

"Am I dead? No... This seems real, but... why am I in a different location again?" Daisuke complained to no one. "Whatever, and who called me earlier?" Daisuke finished as he got up and walked forwards into the only opening space.

Proceeding onwards, Daisuke reached a fork in this cave. To the right was a path with darkness while to the left was a path not so covered by darkness. While deciding on which path to take, Daisuke looked to the left path while the voice spoke again. This time, a small ringing sound came first.

**Daisuke, I am over here...**

Daisuke's eyes widened at the voice, he recognised the voice belonging to Nat-chan. He looked left to right in his area to see where her voice might have come from.

"Nat-chan?" Daisuke called out, wondering why Nat-chan would be around his current location.

**Over here...** the girl voice called out.

At that moment, Daisuke remembered the e-mail from last night: "**but suddenly, the egg glowed a dark blue aura around it and it disappeared!**"

_Nat-chan is here? Why?_ Daisuke thought, then closed his eyes and concentrated. In the blackness of closing his eyes, a slight flash appeared on the right side. Daisuke opened his eyes and faced the right path. Although seemingly more dangerous, if there was at least some lead out of his current mess, Daisuke would go for it.

Slowly entering the path of darkness, Daisuke took small steps. As he entered the area, he began to see clearly. Eventually Daisuke gained confidence in this path and walked on with his normal pace. Stopping once, Daisuke turned around to see that the lengths he walked became as light and clear as the left path, but looking forwards the path was black. _This is weird... but whatever..._ Daisuke thought as he continued through the dark path knowing that almost anything could happen in his world of weirdness.

After another few minutes of walking, Daisuke entered a room where that is shaped like a cylinder. In front of him was a set of stairs that led up to a higher height with another cylinder-shaped field. Not turning back, Daisuke walked up to the platform, and up there stood a cylinder force field with a pedestal in front with a white shining orb stationed on it. Inside the force field seemed to be an object that Daisuke could not see due to the light colouring of the force field.

Walking closer to the pedestal, the shining orb flew upwards, and Daisuke stopped to see the orb glowing with a strange power almost looking at him. With no warning, the orb flew towards Daisuke at full speed, hitting him on the head and sending him backwards on his back.

Unlike the other occasions where Daisuke lie still for a few minutes unconscious, he woke up fast in this event.

"Who's funny idea is it to make me fall down so many times in one day?" Daisuke complained to no one again as he got up. As Daisuke got back up, he noticed a drastic change in his own appearance. Looking down, he had his normal dark blue T-shirt with white stripe across the top along with his blue vest, brown shorts, orange shoes and complete with something that appeared on his head as well. Reaching up, Daisuke pulled off the object and examined it. This object surprised him the most. In his hand, appeared his own pair of goggles. Not Taichi's pair he got, but his very own pair that broke during the start of his Digimon adventure. The only difference was the colour of the goggles; the strap was white while the lens showed a purple colour.

_Either I am dreaming or I am insane... how is all this even possible?_ Daisuke thought as he strapped the pair of goggles back onto his head. Standing up, he remembered his objective and noticed the force field from earlier is now gone. Running forwards, Daisuke took notice of the object that stood in the middle of the circle.

The object has a circular base, while having grey roots stick upwards like trees. The roots closed at on after rising from the circumference of the base, but expanding again at the top as they seem to surround a blue sphere at the top.

_What is this thing? Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained... _Daisuke thought as he reached out and pulled the object out. After removing the object, a black spiral of energy erupted from the hole the base covered. This caused Daisuke to fly backwards in fright, and watched as something formed inside this pillar of dark energy. After a short wait, the thing from inside jumped out of the pillar and released a glee of laughter.

The creature landed near Daisuke, stretching out its arms happily. Daisuke noticed the familiarity to another Digimon he had seen before. Except this Digimon had black fur and purple variation. _A... a... BlackTailmon? What is going on here?_ Daisuke thought as the BlackTailmon looked around and turned to Daisuke. _Uh oh... how do I know she's not hostile?_

After looking at each other for a few seconds, the Tailmon jumped into Daisuke's hands with a big smile and rubbing into Daisuke happily while Daisuke could only react in confusion.

"Ahhhh... hey, what's going on here?" Daisuke said, not sure of why the emerged Digimon showed such interest.

The Tailmon lifted her face to Daisuke's point of view. "Daisuke, you did come after all..." She replied, waiting for Daisuke's reaction while bell sound echoed the area.

Daisuke thought for a short period of time, then it all made sense to him of his situation. "Nat-chan... it's really you! I heard that your Digitama disappeared, but it seems like you already hatched and evolved so far..." Daisuke responded, holding the cat Digimon in his two hands.

"Yes... I am lonely Daisuke... that's why I called out to you... let's go somewhere this time..." Nat-chan suggested.

"Well, ok..." Daisuke said, knowing that perhaps this was his purpose in this world.

As Daisuke and Nat-chan stood up, a dark sphere hovered over them, and it slowly descended at them.

"What is that, Daisuke?" Nat-chan asked.

"I... I don't know..." Daisuke responded as the sphere hovered in front of him. Daisuke reached out with his hands and the sphere landed in his hands. Folding in his fingers, the dark sphere disappeared and in Daisuke's hands was a new D-3 that is completely white everywhere. From the screen rim, grips, everywhere, white. "This is... wait... could it be that...?" Daisuke said, trying to piece together the recent turn of events.

"Daisuke? What's wrong? What is that thing?" The cat asked, seeing Daisuke's face filled with surprise.

"Well, this is a-" Daisuke managed to say before a violent shaking occurred in the cave area and the walls began to crack. Looking around at the collapsing place, Daisuke picked up the object from earlier and placed it in his pocket as well as his new D-3. Daisuke and Nat-chan ran down the stairs and out the doorway. The cylinder room collapsed short afterwards. As Daisuke and Nat-chan ran through the not-so-dark hall, the walls started to collapse as well.

"We have to hurry; it doesn't look like this place will hold out for much longer..." Daisuke said, as Nat-chan nodded in agreement. I think I know what might be the possible cause of this... Daisuke thought as he remembered earlier that a Cyclomon and Airdramon attacked him.

Nat-chan tripped while running, falling down. "Daisuke!" She called out, and Daisuke stopped and turned around. Running back, Daisuke picked up the cat and ran full speed towards the way he had come from. The walls and rocks falling stopped just as Daisuke jumped back into the fork earlier.

Puffing from the recent escape, the Digimon and Human took a moment to breathe, but the respite ended when another violent shaking occurred in the location that Daisuke emerged from when he entered the cave.

"No good, it looks like we're going to have to get out completely before we're safe!" Daisuke said, picking up the Digimon and running through the left path of the fork. The area being clearer gave Daisuke the advantage of seeing what is ahead. Running through the path as the place shook, Daisuke neared the end when he saw a light at the end. Picking up his pace, Daisuke ran through and exited the cave before it completely collapsed.

Outside, Nat-chan jumped off and looked around the area. This area was a full of sand and the rocky areas surrounding the two with one way in front of them. Before making another move, another explosion of rocks occurred above the rocky area. Turning around, Daisuke and Nat-chan saw the flying Airdramon over them, looking at them like they are its food.

"Oh no, this is bad... that thing is here..." Daisuke said, while Nat-chan analysed the Digimon size.

"Leave this to me..." Nat-chan said, walking into battle.

"Huh? Wait, Nat-chan! There's two of them, you... you can't take them on..." Daisuke pleaded, having the thought of merely another Digimon perishing in front of him haunting him.

"Don't worry Daisuke just run, I have a plan" Nat-chan responded, jumping and climbing the rocks.

Daisuke could do nothing protest to make the Digimon stop, but somewhere inside himself he knew there was hope. _Please be safe Nat-chan... I'll never forgive myself if another dies before my eyes..._ Daisuke thought as he ran towards the clearing while turning his head back occasionally to see what the Nat-chan would do.

Airdramon flew down as Nat-chan reached the top of the save, and Cyclomon swiped his big arm around. Nat-chan skipped away, leaving the two enraged. Running to the other side, Nat-chan watched as Cyclomon neared her. Noticing that the Cyclomon stopped, Nat-chan looked to the opposite side with the Airdramon. The two closed in as Airdramon's God Tornado charged while Cyclomon's Arm Bomber readied. At once, the lunged forward in their attacks, but at the last moment Nat-chan jumped away under Airdramon's space while the God Tornado and Arm Bomber collided, causing a minor explosion that critically injured both Digimon. With her task done, Nat-chan ran back to the ledge of the cave rock and descended.

Daisuke saw the explosion smoke rise up as well as numerous black spots rising into the air. At this time, his D-3 beeped, and checking on it, Daisuke saw red numbers all over the screen seeming to react to something. "What's this? Something to do with that?" Daisuke questioned as he pointed the D-3's screen towards the black data spots rising from the explosion. At once, the data reacted and flew into Daisuke's direction like a vortex. Upon reaching him, the data entered the screen of Daisuke's white D-3.

_What is this feeling? This cold feeling... this dread... _Daisuke thought as the last of the data spots flew into the screen of his D-3 before turning off. _Strange... this thing works so differently to other D-3s..._

Nat-chan arrived at Daisuke's location unscathed from the fight. "Daisuke everything ok?" asked the cat.

"Yeah... everything's fine, I don't know how you managed to do that, but that was amazing!" Daisuke commented.

"You think?" Nat-chan asked, smiling.

"Yeah..." Daisuke said, before his D-3 beeped again. "Oh, what now..."

Pressing a few buttons on the D-3, a white light in cone-shape flashed from the D-3, Daisuke looked in surprise as to what this would be. Nat-chan jumped up to Daisuke's shoulder and looked at the flashing D-3. As the whiteness of the flash died down, a familiar hologram figure appeared.

"Gennai!" Daisuke said as the man's face appeared.

"Hey Daisuke! What's up over there?" Greeted the robed man.

"Well, nothing... except just... some action" Daisuke responded, not sure of what to say.

"Say, where are you right now?" Gennai questioned, knowing that by Daisuke's clothing he is not in the DigiWorld.

"Umm, I am at this place... where the Dark Ocean exists..." Daisuke replied.

Shocked at the location, Gennai took a second to process the words and respond. "You are what? How did you get there? Where is V-mon?" Gennai questioned, not knowing the situation.

"Well, that's a long story... but... I guess I could explain..." Daisuke responded, as he sat down at his current location and began to explain the recent events. Starting with the New York world, meeting of Nat-chan, and then through V-mon's unfortunate death up to his current place.

"Hmmm, that's interesting... so what was that object you pulled out earlier? Do you still have it with you?" Gennai asked.

"Yeah, it's right here" Daisuke responded, holding up the object with circle base and blue sphere on top supported by grey roots.

Gennai's eyes widened as he looked at the object. " That is... the Digimental of Darkness... How'd you get it?" Gennai asked.

"What? Darkness? This thing? Are you saying that I am going to become evil now?" Daisuke asked, ignoring Gennai's initial question.

"No, I don't think so... However, I have only heard of rumours about that Digimental ever existing... I did not know that it was actually real... still; it looks like that evil has not given up yet. Which is typical, the forces of evil is always working" Gennai explained.

"Oh, forget that! What's going to happen to me? What if I become evil right now and and... like turn into the next Digimon Kaiser and destroy the world?" Daisuke questioned, still scared of the possibilities that he hold.

"Daisuke calm down, I want you to listen closely right now. Although I have no information on what could happen as you are the first to ever possess this kind of power, but know one thing: You have a choice in what to do with your powers, so just because you hold this power does not automatically make you evil... I think the reason you were given this power is that you are strong-willed enough not to let it control you. I will try to find out more information about this whole thing if I could meet with Qinglongmon. Because of your location, I am only able to contact you for a short period and I really cannot do much to help you out of there. Try to find a way out yourself; just do not forget what I said even if you do not know what it means. Take care!" Gennai concluded.

"Hey! Wait a moment, I am not done!" Daisuke responded, but Gennai's transmission ended.

"Daisuke..." Nat-chan said, getting up from the spot next to Daisuke. "Is it true that Chibimon is gone?"

Daisuke did not respond, but he figured it would be better to say it. "Yeah... he died... but... I am not completely sad... after all; I am going to say that you're my partner now, Nat-chan.

The black cat stood there, blinking her eyes as the words sank in. "Daisuke!" exclaimed the cat, jumping into Daisuke's arms. After a short while of celebrating, a strange noise became apparent to the two of them. They froze for a moment before Daisuke started to say something.

"I am hungry... let's go get something eat..." Daisuke said, while Nat-chan nodded in agreement. Turning and facing their right were some trees, and while the place itself was dark, these trees seemed quite pleasant and resourceful.

Nighttime approached, and Jun had finished with using her computer. However, the one thing that seemed to worry her was Daisuke's absence throughout the day. She got up from her seat and walked out of her room, slowly creeping up to Daisuke's door. Knocking three times with no response, she slowly opened the door. Peeking inside, the sight was the same as morning: Nothing.

_Where did he go? Did he wake up early in the morning and left? Why is he not back yet? Mother and Father are getting worried now... Stupid Daisuke... where could you be?_ Jun thought as she retreated to her own room.

Night in the Dark Ocean world differed from the real world in the sense that the darkness around the sky appeared twice as dark and almost twice as eerie. Daisuke and BlackTailmon were asleep in a dent of a rock structure with a small fire going. Although survival is rare in this world, the two managed to get enough resources to survive for the time being.

Daisuke slowly opened his eyes and sat up from his location. To his right was the fire still burning at a good proximity to warm up but not too close into danger. Next to him is Nat-chan, his new BlackTailmon partner, sleeping away happy. Getting up and walking out a small length, Daisuke looked to where the Dark Ocean would be if visibility were clear. Several thoughts surfaced as Daisuke began to think about the past day.

_So much has happened today... at first waking I was completely powerless to do anything... yet, in almost a matter of minutes to an hour everything seemed to restore itself. It is strange how everything turned out... Powers of Darkness, Digimental of Darkness... how do they all fit together? What's going to happen to me? I wonder where I can go to look for answers... And Nat-chan... When she destroyed herself to save us at that alternate dimension... I wished that I would become her partner... and now... that has become reality... Did I really wish for that though? Did everything happen with V-mon just the way they are so I could be partnered with Nat-chan? What if there was another way...? Did I actually kill V-mon with my own wish? ...no, I must not think that way... V-mon did what he believed was right in saving Patamon, and I am just going to accept that. Nat-chan is my partner now, but surely, I will __**not**__ forget about V-mon. I may not understand Gennai's words yet, but for sure, I will not turn evil..._

Daisuke walked back into the dent of the rock area, slowly settling himself down again and facing the sleeping cat. Nat-chan's face smiled as she was asleep. The very sight of it brings Daisuke new hope and confidence. Sure, Nat-chan is a virus Digimon and Daisuke possessed the Digimental of Darkness, but at heart, they were not evil in anyway. As Daisuke began to understand Gennai's input from earlier, he slowly drifted off to sleep in contentment.

I do not really recall in the Drama CD explicitly stating what kind of Digimon Nat-chan was, so I would not know for sure... Besides, in the CD Drama Mimi explained that the protagonist of the Science Fiction book has a cat who looked for the Door to Summer first, so I just wanted to make some faint parallel to that.

* * *

Another thing to note here is that for the next three chapters, I do intend to put in some time skips. However, I will state how much time has passed before the chapter begins.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:**Having a mild form of writer's block was quite hindering in production of this one, but here it is. I am trying to see how everything would fit together and make the story have a good flow, so I am trying my best keep up. Anyway, two months has passed since the last chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Accepting Changes**

Nat-chan wakes up from a deep slumber as the 'morning' of the Dark World starts up. Survival had gotten easier with experience along with trial and error for the pair. Although there would still be times, where food would run short or places occupied in the world. Nevertheless, they managed to survive. More amazingly, Nat-chan also survives Daisuke's snoring at night, and she gets the much-needed rest as well. This morning was special however, as Nat-chan woke up first before Daisuke while usually the pair would wake up together.

Daisuke's snoring filled the air at the mountaintop, and Nat-chan finishes her stretching to gain some time to think over what she could do now. Quietly and lightly, she takes a step near Daisuke, raising herself up to see the boy still in a deep sleep. Carefully putting her front paws onto her sleeping partner, she lightly jumps up. Seeing Daisuke's sleeping face clearly made the first objective, complete. Now all that is left is Operation Daisuke awakening. Very stealthily, Nat-chan reached out with one paw, and careful not to poke using her cat nails, she pinched Daisuke's nose. At the same time, her other paw covering his mouth.

Shortly after the cut off in oxygen, Daisuke began to struggle awake and eventually sitting up awake as Nat-chan jumped off the struggling boy, laughing.

"Ah! Nat-chan... Did you have to wake up me like that?" Daisuke managed to say while panting for air.

"Daisuke you sleep funny and also wake up funny..." Nat-chan responded in her laughter.

"Hmmm oh well, since we're up now, it's time to eat!" Daisuke said, concentrating on food rather than what just happened.

The pair entered an area with more trees and bushes because here is where they would find most of the food. One big advantage for the two is that they never minded where they would spend the night or how they shared the supplies available. However, Daisuke paid the greatest sacrifice in human history: Ramen eating. Probably the hardest thing ever for Daisuke is missing his noodles at home. While some of the fruits and resources of this world was sufficient for survival, Daisuke still longed for noodles of some sort.

_Strange... It has been quite awhile since arriving in this world, and yet somehow everything seems a little too perfect given my condition. What's worse is that I haven't heard from Gennai yet... oh well, I might as well try to find my own way out of here. I hope that time would come soon, because I need new cloths for real this time... Chibimon was right when he said it stinks of sweat inside my jacket during that time in the other world..._ Daisuke thought as he reached out and grabbed a fruit form a nearby tree.

Almost biting down on the fruit, Daisuke notices something moving on the surface of the fruit and immediately threw it away. Nat-chan let out a small chuckle at the sight. For the small cat, she knew Daisuke would always be quick in everything he does, but she also knows that Daisuke was a nice person overall. Throughout their time spent together would prove that. Daisuke would always be careless in gathering of resources at any time. Quantity over quality would always come first, and sometimes with disastrous results, very typical of Daisuke. While it may be a weakness for the boy, he certainly provides enough resources for survival. Even though fruits and other sources of food would sometimes be spoiled, or maybe branches and leaves fragile, everything worked out fine one way or the other.

Other factors for the pair on their journey included the numerous battles. Since Nat-chan joined up with Daisuke, the amount of hostile Digimon appearing lowered significantly. Though some Digimon did appear hostile and following the Chosen and his new partner. By now, Daisuke got used to the absorbing of evil data into his D-3, even though Daisuke has yet to find out why his D-3 would be able to carry out that task or what would happen to himself. Although Nat-chan was not quite the type of Digimon to get into fighting, she would only fight for the safety of Daisuke. Daisuke knew this too, and he hoped that there would be fewer battles as he and Nat-chan finds a way back home. Regardless, throughout the time spent in the rough terrain world, the Chosen and his partner adapted well and matured some in their own ways.

"Ahh, forget it! All apples here are disgusting!" Daisuke said throwing away the tenth spoiled apple that he almost took a bite from.

"Daisuke, how about eating something that you ate while at your world?" Nat-chan suggested.

"I wish I could... but not only do we have a dearth of usable water here, but I don't think this world has noodles around..." Daisuke replied.

"Noodles? What are they?" Nat-chan asked, not entirely sure of everything in Daisuke's world.

"Noodles. They are these wiggly things that are yellow-like in colour and your put it with hot water, where they get soft and then you eat them. Of course, you also put in seasoning and other flavours to increase the taste," Daisuke explained, reaching out for yet another fruit because of his demanding stomach, and finally getting a parasite-free fruit and began to eat it greedily.

"Wiggly things? Soft? Yellow? Sounds like Digimon..." Nat-chan replied, not understanding the noodle concept.

"No no... It's not a Digimon; it's a type of food... I can't explain it, but if or when we get back, I'll let you try some. They are really good!" Daisuke finished, taking another big bite while Nat-chan jumped onto his left shoulder.

For Nat-chan, food was not a real problem because she has Digimon survival instincts that always led her to find her own forms of survival. Although sometimes Daisuke would gather up copious amount of food that her own hunt of food is not needed. Because of the similarities for this world and some urbanised places of the actual world, sometimes Daisuke would get lucky to find some other sources of food that would be sufficient to fill his survival needs. The most crucial group that Daisuke looks for would be the milk. Since Fruits and Vegetables are easy, resources in the wilderness of the weird world along with, some meats like fishes from the very few ponds and cooked very well.

"Daisuke... will we ever find a way out of this place?" Nat-chan asked, knowing that Daisuke gets easily bored with some things.

"We will, sooner or later that Gennai is going to show up again... I just don't know when... even if he doesn't, I'll make sure we do get out of this place" Daisuke responded, smiling to his Digimon as he finished his sentence.

Entering into a more city-like area, Daisuke looked around for anything that could be suspicious. Seeing nothing much, he continued his path into the area. Even though the place is often in darkness and looking like evil lurks around every corner, Daisuke lived here long enough to learn that most things may appear evil, but is not evil on the inside because of the how this world works. Opening the door to a small house to his right, he opened the fridge to find nothing but maybe a small piece of bread.

_I wonder how these things came to be in this world... it's not like that evil Digimon ever had anytime to go shopping or eat at buffets while they invaded Odaiba... or did they? _Daisuke thought, then imagining Demon in his robed form flying around the Tokyo market with a shopping cart or using chopsticks to eat sushi at a bar. The very image made Daisuke burst into a series of laughter; perhaps for Daisuke some things are better unexplained. Taking the non-spoiled bread from the fridge, Daisuke exited the building while Nat-chan questioned him.

"Daisuke? What was so funny?" She asked.

"Oh nothing, I was just... thinking of something..." Daisuke replied, continuing to walk his path throughout the small urban area to the other side.

"Something you did while at home?" Nat-chan questioned, wanting to know more about Daisuke and what could he could possibly do in his own world as she never been to that world before.

"No, not really... I guess it won't be clear unless you have a clear understanding of what happened during the adventures before... I guess I will tell you everything once we're back there... after all, this environment just gives me the chills..." Daisuke said, walking quicker through the empty street of the weird world.

Coming to the end of the city-area, the pair arrived at a more forest-like environment and sat down to take a small break. Daisuke started to stuff the piece of bread away while Nat-chan went to look for her own source of food. Looking toward the ocean area, Daisuke began to wonder what would become of their future. It was easy to say that they would get out, but even when he spoke to Gennai, the expert was unsure. Regardless, Daisuke would not complain as he lives under contentment. It could have been a lot worse for all he knew. Only thing that does bring heavy thoughts is what everyone else in the real world was thinking or how they reacted to him disappearing so suddenly.

Back in Odaiba, school has started and everyone is a little ways into school. For the Chosen around Odaiba--both older and younger set go to their respective schools with some interest. Although Digimon is widely accepted at the current state of the world, the rules were not to appear during class time or have them stay at home.

At the Odaiba elementary school, Takeru sits quietly in his classroom taking notes. For him, it was just another normal day with nothing much going on. Although he sees his close friends like Hikari, Iori, and Miyako, some classes moved very slowly for him. True that it was less dangerous than fighting someone like BelialVamdemon, but he did not expect it to be this boring.

_Well, a short break is coming up... I wonder where Patamon would be..._Takeru thought as he jotted down some more notes and figuring out what they meant as the teacher continued to babble on. Finally, the short break came, and Takeru smiled upon seeing Patamon flying towards him as he exited the building into the open field area.

"Hey, how was class?" Patamon asked, giving off a bright smile that is opposite to Takeru's half-exhausted face.

"Well, it wasn't that interesting. At least not the recent class anyway. Sometimes it just gets boring, I know I do well in that class but some lectures are just... boring" Takeru admitted, then taking out his D-Terminal and flipped through the various options.

"You made it this far already, so all that's left is leftovers, should be easy, right?" Patamon said, landing on Takeru's shoulder and looking into the screen. "What are you doing now?"

"Yes, the rest of the up-coming classes should be easy. Anyway, one thing that's good about school is that you do get to meet all your friends, like here we have Hikari, Iori, Miyako and... and..." Takeru trailed off as two Digimentals appeared on his D-Terminal. Unable to go on with his sentence, he gave up on sending an e-mail to one of his friends as he originally planned.

"Takeru? Is it about..." Patamon questioned, and the very next moment a reply came.

"Yeah..." Takeru said in a quick and conclusive tone. Despite hearing about what Daisuke said from before, there would always be a tiny bit of self-inflicted guilt that Takeru creates for himself. To make matters worse was Daisuke's sudden disappearance. The school year seemed to start quieter than Takeru expected, as he felt it was his fault for getting mad during that event in the Digital World.

"Takeru... it wasn't your fault" Patamon reminded his partner, as Takeru turned to Patamon and smiled.

"I know it's just a little weird right now. I know he doesn't hold anything against us, but... I know what it was like to lose you, and to see another person off like that just worries me. Especially since the rest of us have already taken a few trips to primary village to find V-mon's Digitama, but seeing no sight of it and hearing that Daisuke disappeared suddenly makes me wonder... Anyway, I am sure wherever Daisuke is that he's safe, but thanks Patamon" Takeru explained, and then hearing a call from behind.

Turning around, Takeru meets Hikari, Iori and Miyako, who seemed to have plans for the day already. Of course, no one else of the Odaiba chosen knew about Daisuke's unfortunate accident, they only knew that he went missing. With the exception of Hikari and Tailmon, as Takeru had told them about what happened at that certain place that time. Hikari and Tailmon promised to keep the secret.

"Hello Takeru! You know what? We have plans for today--shopping!" Miyako said, only to get flat-faced responses from the rest of the group.

"She's just kidding... we've actually volunteered to go clean up the gymnasium because people were littering after last night's game. Want to help us?" Iori offered.

Miyako sighed as her own version of what everyone else agreed to do went down the drain. Without much delay, Takeru gave his response. "Sorry, I think I am a little bit on the busy side today. Maybe tomorrow we'll do something together alright?" Takeru finished and eyed Hikari.

Hikari knew exactly what Takeru wanted. Ever since learning that Daisuke went missing, occasionally Takeru would go somewhere to look for the missing chosen. Namely the Digital World. Knowing that the decisions were set, Hikari with Iori and Miyako retreated as the break time ended by the notorious bell.

_I know he's out there somewhere... but why would he run away like this anyway? _Takeru thought as he outlined his day inside his head. He knew very well that Daisuke could be anywhere, but the Digital World is his first clue. Although reluctant to use his new Digimental at first, Takeru eventually gotten around to have it around as carrying it seemed like a hindrance. He knows Daisuke had given it to him specifically, but he would return it when the chance came. Of course, that would be further away as he and the others had no idea when V-mon would come back.

Daisuke and Nat-chan sat down at a higher area beside the Dark Ocean. Despite the evil aura emitting from the water, the sight of the "sun" setting was quite pleasant. The faint light that came from the pseudo-sun usually went down during the afternoon of this world, but there would be enough light to last until real nighttime.

"In my world the sun would be much brighter and won't go down until much later... but I guess this is still quite nice to watch... even though the colours aren't as nice," Daisuke said as the light blob continued to go down.

"Seems like you really miss your world, Daisuke... I would like to go there with you as well..." Nat-chan said in response to Daisuke's statement.

"Yes, we'll get a chance to go there once we find a way back... for now, I'd say maybe we should..." Daisuke trailed off as a small splash of water could be heard from further away.

Looking into the direction of the splash, Daisuke noticed the lighting of the world disappeared faster than any other day that he lived in this world. Continuing the examination of the general area, a bubbling sound soon surfaced onto the water in a big radius in front.

Stepping back a little, the pair felt a rise of tension as the darkness seemed to close in on them. Although the general land area was clear, the Dark Ocean had never been more eerie and evil.

"Daisuke..." Nat-chan, jumping onto her partner's shoulder.

"Yes... something is here... just remember, if it gets ugly then we run for it... I haven't felt such an ugly sensation before, but this time I am sure something is up..." Daisuke said as the bubbling area in the water just before them drew a big silhouette image of something before them.

A small but sinister laughter erupted from the silhouette as it took form in the water with also some indistinguishable figures rising out from the water area nearby. Fright filled the pair as they look around to see that they other humanoid figures surround them. These figures were completely black as well as having only two white spots on their heads for eyes.

"It is not her..." Said one of the black figures around the area.

"Really now... then who do we have here? If it is not the Chosen of Light, the who could it be?" responded the large figure as the dark figures observed Daisuke closely along with Nat-chan looking onto the figures with fear.

Observing Daisuke and Nat-chan, the dark figures stood still. Daisuke clenched up his fists ready to escape somehow, but before any movement occurred, they spoke again.

"This is very interesting... Instead of the Chosen of Light like we hoped for, he is also a Chosen Child... but he seems to be similar to us..." Muttered another one of the figures nearby.

_Chosen of Light? Hikari? These guys are after her? Wait, they are of the darkness so I can see why... but..._ Daisuke thought, as it all made sense during that time when Hikari disappeared in the middle of school.

"Really? Then this should be interesting... Chosen one..." Said the large figure, turning towards Daisuke, striking a sense of fear into him. "I am Dagomon, the ruler of the sea... I noticed that your presence here is quite unusual, but never mind that. I offer you a position within my place, since we have been searching a suitable servant to help our dark world thrive... We originally had the plan for the Chosen of Light, but now we see that you have a much better potential for that position. Come... join with my kingdom."

Daisuke did not need to think of his decision on the matter, as he knew what his response would be. "Never! At least now, I know that you were behind some of the mischief during my adventures. You have bothered my friends enough already, what more do you want? Hikari, Takeru and even Ken! You've managed to bother everyone with your non-sense, so what exactly do you want anyway?" Daisuke said in defence.

There grew a light snicker from Dagomon in the ocean while some of the humanoid turned into sea-like creatures. "Very well boy... I've offered if you want to come, but since you don't want to, I guess we'll just have to do this the hard way..." Dagomon said calmly as the humanoid figures surrounding the pair closed in.

Having their fears lifted and replaced with determination, Daisuke and Nat-chan repelled the dark figures with simple punches and scratches. The humanoids dispersed as the hits came into contact and reformed near them.

"What the... what are these guys?" Daisuke said, noticing the formlessness of the figures.

Nat-chan looked around to see that her attacks were useless against the formless beings. Suddenly, Dagomon reached out with his tentacles and held both Daisuke and Nat-chan. The pair struggled in vain. Pulling the two nearby, Dagomon laughed out loudly for the first time, his vicious laugh filling the air with evil.

"Now, we should start things off..." Dagomon said, moving his tentacle over and dropping Daisuke into a part of the Dark Ocean. A large splash came about, and Daisuke flew back up, trying to see what was going on while the group of sea-like creatures jumped in and dragged Daisuke down into the water. Immediately Daisuke recognised the Hangyomon, only they did not have their swimming gear. Daisuke struggled to gain control as he continued to go into the deeper part of the Dark Ocean.

"Daisuke!" Cried out Nat-chan, trying to pry free from her hold to no avail.

"It is useless, soon you shall be one of us... you will see that your companion joins us... you are of our type too... so why do you join forces with a rebellious Chosen?" Questioned Dagomon to the BlackTailmon.

"That's because... Daisuke is really nice... he will not do anything that intends to harm other people... he knows that you would want to use power to harm other people" Nat-chan responded, still trying to break free from her hold.

"Interesting... you are of the darkness as well, yet you put such trust and affections for a mere human... Has he really poisoned your mind so? You're one of us... to depend on such a human is a disgrace... you must be punished" Dagomon said, still in a calm but firm voice. The contraction of Nat-chan tightened, causing a wave of pain.

"Daisuke!" Nat-chan called out in pain.

Down at the water of the Dark Ocean, the darkness flows over Daisuke, as he stays helpless in his hold.

_What... am I going to do...? I can't die here... but how do I get myself out of this situation? I am... still underwater... can't breathe..._ Daisuke thought as the Digimon continued to hold him.

Images of Daisuke's memories began to surface in his mind as he hopelessly falls deeper into the water.

_V-mon?_Daisuke thought as he remembered the various images from the past. _That's right... he died so I could be here today... heh, if he were here right now he would think I am ridiculous looking like this..._ Daisuke questioned himself as a wave of darkness covered him, giving a cold chill throughout his body and erasing the images.

_No... Now I get it... all of them... the dark figures... they have fallen to the darkness and became what they are right now... No! I am not going to become one of them! I'll show that ugly thing who's boss. The Darkness... it acts like as if it is trying to eat me... but I won't let that happen! I might be able to use it myself since I possess the Digimental of this type of power..._ Daisuke thought as he focused himself to absorbing the dark powers.

The darkness around Daisuke drifted into him and disappeared. At once a blue wave of energy emitted from Daisuke and the Scubamon holding him down let go and backed off. A blue sphere formed around Daisuke as he felt air return to him. The sphere immediately floated upwards and Daisuke reached the surface within seconds to catch more air that seemed to come into this sphere.

"What?" Dagomon said, noticing the sphere and Daisuke kneeling catching his breath.

"Don't think I will lose to the likes of you!" Daisuke said, holding up his D-3 that reacted with a wave of black energy.

Nat-chan reacted to Daisuke's determination and D-3 energy. Her body emitted a white light and started to change form, which caused Dagomon to let go. The new appearance came out into a more human shape, and the general clothing is black in colour with a cover overhead while some silver long hair remains uncovered. Daisuke recognised the Digimon that Nat-chan evolved. However, unlike the one he had seen from Demon's group, this one had no chains around her or an evil spirit head sticking out on her shoulder as her eye colour was green instead of red. No bats were present, which made Nat-chan look very different from the other Digimon earlier.

The other beings near the area all retreated in fear at the sight of the evolution. They had seen a LadyDevimon before, but this one seemed very different and they knew she was not on their side.

_Heh... looks like it had to happen... I think we'd better refrain from using this form in front of everyone or they would overreact before I get a chance to explain..._ Daisuke mentally joked to himself as he collapsed onto his knees inside the protective sphere he created. Taking in another breath, Daisuke began to feel weak from all the activity.

Knowing the limited time available to them, Nat-chan looked at the large sea creature with much suppressed anger, and prepared to attack the large Digimon for putting her partner in such great harm.

"This is what I mean... Daisuke is my friend! You are the one who should be punished!" Nat-chan erupted in her new form. Flying backwards, she gathered energy at the palm of her hand, releasing her Darkness Wave attack.

Despite being a 'Darkness' Wave, the beam that came out glowed white. Dagomon moved back a little and tried to counter with his Innumerable Tentacles attack. The two forces met and an explosion took place with the force against Dagomon.

Falling down into the water into an injured state, Dagomon muster a few laughs as he and his minions drew away from the area on their water surface. "Ha ha... interesting... very well, we'll let you and your little pet run free for now Child of Darkness... but know this: As long as you walk your path, we will always be right here, next to you." Dagomon finishes as he and his henchmen disappear over the horizon and the last faint bit of pseudo-sun shone through and the whole area free from darkness.

"It doesn't matter, you may rise a thousand times and you will still lose!" Daisuke called out from his sphere before falling down again and having the sphere disappear.

Nat-chan flew in and caught the falling Daisuke. Landing down in the area they were resting before, Nat-chan looked down at her exhausted partner. Another battle just passed, and while it had been close to the end for both the Chosen and his Digimon, the bitter sweetness of the aftermath was worth it.

Reverting into her BlackTailmon form, Nat-chan stayed beside Daisuke closely and slowly fell asleep. Keeping watch just in case if Dagomon or his servants came back for more action. For the first time Nat-chan evolved through her special bond with Daisuke, a very rewarding experience for a Digimon who is new to most of the functions of the universe. Before completely going into sleep, Nat-chan looked over and examined Daisuke. His clothing changed colours from the immersion with the Dark Ocean, making his vest and T-shirt to a lighter purple colour, while his shorts remained the same along with shoes changing light blue. _Does that black water changes human clothing? How did Daisuke change while under water?_ Nat-chan wondered as she slowly went to sleep, not worrying about the matter much. Instead, she is thankful for the day being over and that Daisuke was safe with her.

* * *


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N:** There will be an additional five months time warp in the chapter, it will be noted. Only one more chapter of this time skip, so bear with it just a little more in case if it starts to get confusing.

* * *

**Chapter 3: The name 'Hikari' **

Very slowly, the pseudo-sun rose on the horizon again, bringing much light into the dim world again. Daisuke began to stir from a long sleep along with his partner. Rising up, the pair noticed a new day has taken place of the old one. Normally for Daisuke, it would all be about food as he wakes up. This morning is different in that the seemingly 'calmness' of this world no longer existed. Instead, feelings of coldness, fear, and other negative emotions filled the air.

"Oww, I feel so weak..." Daisuke muttered as he noticed a bit of pain over himself.

"Daisuke?" Nat-chan said, looking towards her partner.

"Hmm?" Daisuke hummed while looking over to see his Digimon back to adult level.

"Are you all right? And what happened to your clothes?" Nat-chan questioned, as Daisuke began to tune into the current situation.

Looking down to examine himself, Daisuke noticed the colour change, but did not react with much worry to it. "I don't know, as long as it does not do anything I am fine with this... Anyway, let's look for a way out of here; with him around I don't even want to know what's next..."

Before standing up, the pair immediately took notice of a blinding light from just behind them in their location. Covering their eyes, they try to look to what the bright light would be in the break of the morning.

"Is he back already for more?" Daisuke said, as he continued to look in the direction of the light until a voice replied.

"Back for more? Did something happen, Daisuke?" Asked another human voice.

The light slowly disappeared and soon Daisuke looked in the direction of the light to notice a new figure in front of him. The new figure appeared to be in mostly white colour and a slim build. Daisuke recognised the figure, and found the words he needed.

"Gennai... where've you been? I have waited so long in this ugly place and you don't even tell me that you're around!" Daisuke began in his demanding voice.

"I am sorry, but I really can't locate you even with the technology I have. Only recently through the Digital World am I able to get a faint trace of you and your partner. It also took a lot of time in getting into this world. I would have come yesterday, but then there seems to be some sort of disruption that prevented me from doing that" Gennai explained, pulling over his hood.

"Oh... ok then. So do you have any idea why I am here?" Daisuke asked, not looking in any other direction that would have the Dark Ocean.

"Yes. Although I do not have all the information you need, I have found out that you were dragged here because your Digimon seemed to have called you... somehow" Gennai responded, looking at the BlackTailmon that seemed confused at the conversation.

"Right, so what about Nat-chan? Or what do you know about this whole thing involving me?" Daisuke said, remembering how he appeared into the world.

"This is where everything starts to get complicated, but for you it is nothing much to worry about. To put it in simple terms, you are just taking a different role as a Chosen from before along with a new Digimental. Although I do not know who might have assigned this position to you, I would say not to worry about it since you are not under an effect like the Dark Spores. Anyway, that is beside the point. I have actually got some good and bad news," Gennai continued to talk, taking a short break.

At this point, Daisuke took note of the good and bad news. He eagerly awaits the next response. "The Good thing is that I can bring you out of here to the Digital World. This means less danger for you. However, you will not be able to go back home directly. From our last conversation, I have managed to get a skeleton data for your Digivice, and I have yet to look deeply into it, but it lacks the function to travel between worlds. Not to mention that unlike other Digivices, your friends would not be able to detect you even if they are in near proximity." Gennai finished.

"What? Then what am I going to do? I need new clothes because there is hardly any water to wash up!" Daisuke complained as Gennai began to wonder what Daisuke did to survive this world.

"Well, bear with it for a little longer Daisuke... I have trying what I can to help you in this situation. I am also looking into what you said earlier about the Archnemon event. It would seem that there might be more going on than we think. For now, let us get you to the Digital World and I will look further into what your Digivice may be. Normally you would not be able to get out of here, but I have developed a special port that would allow you to do so. I don't see a need to worry about how you are holding through with all this right now, as you seem to be unaffected by your own powers." Gennai said, reaching back and pulling a laptop computer.

"All right, but will I ever get back home?" Daisuke asked his last question, before taking out his D-3.

"Yes. I am certain of it. Right now, we'll get you to safety and then I will continue to see what I can do." Gennai responded, as Daisuke opened his way to the Digital World. Going through, Daisuke and Nat-chan flew through the warp while Gennai closed the laptop. "Good luck Daisuke..." Gennai said once more before returning to his own business.

Through the Warp, Daisuke and Nat-chan appeared in the Digital World and began to look around in the area. However, for them this was not a typical soft landing, as the noticed themselves at a higher elevation.

"Huh, What are we... Ahhh!" Daisuke shouted as he looked downwards to notice they have appeared in mid-air in the Digital World and now plummeting into the ground.

Although not a very high height, the pair did manage to make sand-craters on the ground where they landed. Slowly getting up from their location without much pain from the fall, Daisuke looked around to see a clear sky and well-lighted area for once since his mysterious departure from home.

"That Gennai... what was he thinking? Oh well, at least there is colour in this place, and it is a lot safer! Ah, right! I keep forgetting to ask Gennai if he had told my friends about this." Daisuke began, reaching out his arms and catching a slight breeze that came by. He also noticed that Nat-chan is out of sight, and looked around for her. Looking around his area, Daisuke did not see anything and wondered where the black cat might have disappeared.

Almost as if by magic, Daisuke felt a big tap on the top of his head and reacted in surprise as Nat-chan laughed at the reaction. "Daisuke!"

"Ahh! I was scared back there, how'd you do that anyway?" Daisuke asked, as Nat-chan only rested on his head.

"Hey Daisuke... how did you manage to change into new clothes again?" Nat-chan asked in response, ignoring the earlier question.

"Huh? What?" Daisuke said, not noticing that he indeed has his clothes changed again. Looking downwards, Daisuke notes the usual jacket and rubber gloves for adventures in the Digital World. Except this time, the rubber gloves are white, same as his D-3. For his jacket, the colour is entire black except for the white crescent moon on his back that he managed to look at by stretching the jacket. "mmm, I don't look evil in this do I, Nat-chan?"

"I guess not..." Nat-chan replied, not exactly knowing the reason behind the question.

Without much more delay on the clothing issue, the pair walks northward in hopes of finding a better scenery than just the plain desert they are in. Unfortunately, for them, a real sun is now shining over them and the black colours the two have made the heat much worse.

"Daisuke... is it this hot in all places of the Digital World as well?" Nat-chan asked her equally exhausted partner.

"No, the place we landed in is just horrible... And we're not used to so much sun because of where we live from before. Nevertheless, at least we're in an area that is less dangerous than before" Daisuke replied, trying to look ahead to see any place of rest.

After walking for few more minutes, the pair finally sees some buildings from further away. In their change of sombre mood to an exuberance one, both human and Digimon increased their travel speed and headed towards the area of rest.

Upon reaching the place, Daisuke immediately notice the familiarity of the area. _I remember... this is the place where Starmon appeared under control. I wonder if he is still around?_ Daisuke wondered as he took note of the buildings and looking for Starmon's place. Leading the way, Daisuke scrutinise the area and came upon a unique edifice that told him it is the place he is looking for.

"Hey Daisuke, where are we? This place looks deserted..." Nat-chan said; worry filling her with the unfamiliarity of the place.

"It's not scary... I've been here with my friends before; we even managed to free Digimon from Digimon Kaiser's hold" Daisuke assured, as he remembered how Fladramon blasted Starmon.

"Digimon Kaiser?" Nat-chan asked in response.

"Right... I have yet to tell you of what happened during my previous adventure... I really should tell you sometime before I forget more of it... Anyway, just follow me right now" Daisuke finished, pushing open the doors to the building and calling out in his voice.

Shortly after the call and surely enough, a Digimon appeared from behind the counter. The Digimon's head part is shaped like a star with the middle being black while the star points are silver-gray and a cowboy hat rests on the top point of the star. For the leg and arm parts, they were colour of blue.

Hmm? Oh hey! It is not often that human with partnered Digimon come by, but today seems special. Come, sit down and relax yourselves! You two look very tired from travelling I'll bet, it's been a long time since I have seen a Chosen Children anyway" Starmon's warm welcome flowed out, passing out two jugs of drinks.

Sitting down, the pair felt refreshed from the touch of the sweet drink. When thirst became no more for Daisuke, he spoke up.

"Hey Starmon, I forgot to tell you earlier, but I was one of the chosen that saved you from the Kaiser's control, remember?" Daisuke asked.

Starmons eyes widened a little and gave his reply. "Oh, so you were? Well, I am sorry; I am not good with names? But you're... Iori, right? "

Daisuke slumped a little upon hearing the Digimon's response. Surely, Daisuke would have expected the Digimon to remember who he was, especially since he and V-mon freed the manager from dark ring control. "No, that's not my name... my friend is Iori." Daisuke responded.

"Oh? Well, let me think, I might remember if I think a little... oh! Yes, you're Miyako, right?" Starmon said, eyes lighting up to indicate a smile.

Daisuke's eyes narrowed a bit, being mistaken for his friend Iori would be fine. However, being mistaken for a girl's name was certainly not ok for him; nevertheless, because of the long time Daisuke refrained from anger.

"No... Although Miyako is also my friend" Came Daisuke's slow and stern response.

"Hmm? Uh oh, let me think a bit more, I think I can get it..." Starmon said, hoping not to insult the boy if he gets his name wrong again.

At that moment, the doors of the building opened and another Digimon appeared and spoke aloud.

"You were never too good with names, were you?" Said a voice, catching the attention of all current occupants of the building.

Turning around, the three saw the Digimon with cowboy hat, red scarf around neck, nose area having a cannon stick out and along with several bullets along with other western-like clothing style.

"Revolmon!" Daisuke said in response to the new Digimon that entered the place.

"So anyway, I remember you young one. With a Digimon that type of legs, you are definitely that Sora we saw before!" Revolmon stated, as if concluding the case.

Daisuke tensed up a little. Twice now, he got a girl's name at the bad memory of these two Digimon.

"You're wrong as well, Sora is also my friend, but it is not me" Daisuke responded to Revolmon's guess.

"Oh... well, there was somebody else then..." Starmon said, as he and Revolmon began to think about whom else could be that they met from a long time ago.

"Who are you?" They said in unison, having given up.

Daisuke clenched a fist, but not too hard. Although his face showed signs of impatience as his name is clearly forgotten.

"My name is Daisuke! You remembered all my friends but me!"Daisuke said out of impatience, but keeping his voice now to not sound offensive.

Starmon and Revolmon stood surprised at the name, and began to wonder and think back to the time.

"Umm... there was a Daisuke?" They questioned aloud.

At this point, Daisuke remained silent while Nat-chan sat still and relaxed, as she knew what was going to happen next. For sure, she trusted Daisuke that the place was not new, and it was true. However, it was most amusing to see that the place did not recognise Daisuke.

After the segment of silence, Daisuke put his right palm onto the table and urged himself upwards from his heat. Nat-chan smiled at the sight and watched as the big event took place.

For the next few minutes, shouting filled the atmosphere as Revolmon and Starmon tried to remember the exact events of what happened when Daisuke and his friends appeared and helped free the area from the Kaiser's grasp personally by Daisuke's primary source evidence.

Settling down, Starmon and Revolmon remembered the events of that day clearly, particularly Daisuke's moments.

"Right, right. I am sorry Daisuke, it just did not occur to me that you did save me, ha-ha. I guess it's the change of Digimon partner. Back then you had your blue dragon friend, whatever happened to him?" Starmon finished with his question.

Daisuke stopped in all his activities and looked down a little. After a very short period, he responded. "Well, there has been a lot going on, so there would be much to explain... but... V-mon is... dead now" Daisuke manage to say, remembering the moment that his partner vanished into irreplaceable data.

"Oh uh... sorry to hear that... I guess so much has happened that we just don't know... Anyway, let's just focus on things that matter for now. You have just recently stumbled into this area, right? I suppose then you'll need support as you do not have much on yourself right?" Starmon questioned.

"Yeah. When I came here again, I was thinking that maybe you have something for the two of us to do" Daisuke responded to the question.

"Unfortunately for you two, I don't have many things that need to be taken care of here..." Starmon started again, knowing that his place is the dead-end for any support.

"Hey, that's not a problem. If you need to do something useful, then I've got just the perfect position for you guys," Revolmon said from behind.

"Really? We'll take it!" Daisuke quickly responded without second thought.

"All right then, I shall also tell you of some important things that you need to know since recently. When you're ready, we can go." Revolmon responded in a more serious tone as he walked out.

Turning to Starmon, the pair thanked him for his hospitality and support, as they got ready for Revolmon's quest idea. Getting outside, the pair joined with Revolmon on the ride and they rode off into the other side of the desert area as Revolmon started to talk.

"Like I said earlier, there are some important things you must know, so listen up. Just a recent amount of time ago, we thought peace was around in the Digital World, but that is not true. In fact, sometimes there would be these dark portals hovering over sky and from those, evil Digimon emerge and start to terrorise the local Digimon villages. There is not really a set system of how each area deals with these random attacks, but all Digimon have agreed to one thing: Deal with them by force. Whether this is with local Digimon or some travelers, just somehow manage it. We do not know how this is going to be resolved, but... for now we're holding out just fine." Revolmon explained as the horses went on.

Daisuke recognised the descriptions for the phenomena as to what happened with Archnemon appearing again in that event. _Could all this be related?_ Daisuke thought as the wind continued to blow while he sat there thinking about how everything how connect.

_**Five Months later...**_

Daisuke and Nat-chan have now adapted to the relatively more welcoming environment of the Digital World. Revolmon traveled along with them throughout various regions of the Digital World that included more appealing colours than those of the desert area. While they avoided battles, there were times when battle was the only option, and for this group it was no problem because the Digimon that appeared from the black shrouds would never exceed that of an adult level.

The work involved on the route included loading and unloading materials, and with some errands to run for the local towns or villages. The workload has been manageable for the Chosen and Digimon as they survived much harder labour from before and without reward as well. They both know that someday they would be able to go to Daisuke's home world, or sometimes Daisuke would hope that his friends would by chance find him in the Digital World and retrieve him. However, none of the dreaming vision ever became reality. Daisuke is also very overdue in telling Nat-chan about his adventures from before, but due to some labour work, they did not have the time.

Present day however, proved to be a different matter as the work did not seem overly hard for the two, and that today did not have a huge load of work either. Loading up the last box, Daisuke got back on the ride and relaxed. Letting out a sigh, the work of the day is finally over. Although Daisuke would still look around for a way to get new clothing, as never in his life did Daisuke ever worry about clothing. However, this current situation changed everything and although he constantly insist of new clothing. By now, his new jacket and gloves already seemed older than his previous jacket and gloves. Nat-chan would always assure Daisuke that he does not 'stink' as he claims.

"Alright, we're done... we can get some good rest tonight..." Daisuke said, still relaxing from the work as Revolmon still had his own business to do in the town.

Nat-chan climbed up the ride and lay down near Daisuke. "Daisuke, what about telling me your story? It has been so long already..." Nat-chan reminded her partner.

"Right! I almost forgot about that... fine, I could tell you tonight..." Daisuke said in response, even though his "almost forgot" is equivalent to "completely forgotten."

Without much more to do for the day, night approached quickly and overtook the daylight. Having set-up a campsite, Revolmon fell fast asleep sitting on his ride as Daisuke and Nat-chan travelled a small pace away from the ride and settled in their area.

Sitting close to Daisuke, Nat-chan found a comfortable position for the hearing of the long story. Daisuke took a short moment to rethink some of the events that happened in his adventures before. After enough thinking, Daisuke was ready to give his story.

"Well, I guess I should start from scratch in this..." Daisuke said as he began his story.

Daisuke told the story of how he encountered Digimon the first time during the Vamdemon invasion along with meeting of V-mon. going onto the adventures along with appearances of Fladramon, Lightdramon, Magnamon, XV-mon, Paildramon, and Imperiadramon. Although most of the story's details were blurry because of the proximity since time passed, Nat-chan understood the gist of the story. As Daisuke finished with the basic concepts of the Digital World systems, and the story up to BelialVamdemon, he paused for a moment before going on.

Adding on was Wallace's partners along with Diablomon events. Daisuke then continued to describe the rest of the story regarding V-mon's demise and what the dying Digimon said about not being able to be reborn. Along with what happened up to his meeting with his current partner.

"Well, that's the whole thing up until this recent adventure with you. Honestly, I thought it was completely all over for me. Somehow when I wished you would become my partner, it just happened like that" Daisuke finished.

The stories made sense to the Black cat as she made connections to what she heard earlier travelling with Daisuke on some conversation points. However, there was one thing that did not make sense to Nat-chan, and this was the very fact that Daisuke would always leave a brief period of silence before mentioning the 'Hikari' name while referring to his friends. Now that Daisuke finished his stories, his partner would take the chance to ask an important question. Nat-chan jumped onto Daisuke and lay relaxed, but her own head filled with a barrage of questions.

"Daisuke... who... is this Hikari person? Was she mean to you?" Nat-chan asked, addressing the slight pause before mentioning that name.

Daisuke tried to hide his face away, his efforts not to include details about Hikari failed as his partner caught onto what was happening during the story telling.

"No, she wasn't mean to me. In fact, she's nice and caring..." Daisuke managed to respond, still trying to hide the truth away from his partner for whatever reasons he did not know himself.

"Huh? Daisuke? Did... Did you like her?" Nat-chan asked.

The question had pierced into Daisuke way harder then anything else would. Indeed the truth that he tried so hard throughout the telling of the stories was now soon to be revealed. To Daisuke, he had been hoping that perhaps Nat-chan would not have understood anything of it, and his major flaw of hesitating with Hikari's name is now costing him the truth. Daisuke leaned backwards and landed on his back. Facing away from his partner and looking at the moon in the sky, Daisuke slowly thought up of a suitable response.

"Y-yeah... I liked her... I... guess there is no hiding it anymore since you noticed it... Anyway, I did have a crush on Hikari. Many times, I have tried to impress her but ended up looking ridiculous. This carried on throughout the adventure, and even afterwards. Finally, I got the courage to ask her out, only rejection came... now, around that same time was when Chibimon, Wallace, Gumimon, Mimi, and Me went into that world and met you. See, that is the reason why I had to tell Chibimon to be quiet when he suggested naming you 'Hikari'."

Silence filled the night air soon after Daisuke finished, Nat-chan opened another question. "But... why keep it a secret? Daisuke... do you trust me?"

"Yes I trust you. Only that quite some time has passed since then, and bringing up her name so suddenly when I haven't even seen her for quite awhile only seems to be remembering the bad memory." Daisuke concluded, hoping the conversation would end just right there and drift off to sleep and tomorrow to wake up without any word of the matter.

Before settling for the night, Nat-chan walked up to Daisuke and posed one final question. "Do you still like her?"

"Well, I..." Daisuke trailed off, never finishing that sentence. Again, for Daisuke the question is extremely sudden as it is easy to acknowledge that he did indeed have a crush on Hikari, but to say if he still likes her or not is a completely different matter to Daisuke.

Nat-chan, almost as if sensing her partner's lack of response and uneasiness just rested beside Daisuke as the silence grew in the night. Slowly the pair drifted off to sleep, but before Daisuke completely fell asleep, he drew his left up and patted Nat-chan on the head.

The following day in Odaiba, the sun continued to light the city as School time ended. Hikari and Tailmon walked through the streets of Odaiba and trying to fight through the heavy crowds. The weather above them certainly looked more pleasant at this time of year, and with just enough sun to light the area but no overheat Odaiba made the place very lively. Nevertheless, Hikari and Tailmon agreed to help Takeru and Patamon with their trip to the Digital World today. As far as the secret between the two pairs, nobody has yet to notice as Daisuke's disappearance created a little cover for this secret. Throughout time, some of the pain that Takeru took upon himself is assuaged by both time and Hikari's convincing. However, neither Hikari nor Takeru or their partners have yet to give up on finding Daisuke.

Getting up into the higher level of the building, Hikari opened the door to what would be home and went lightning fast into the house. Hikari did not exactly look thoroughly in the surrounding area and as she is just about to reach her room, a big impact of forces came together and apart. Although the impact did not cause any real falls, a breathing cool-down moment took place. The other force at the other side of Hikari first responded.

"Hikari? You could slow down just a little bit; it's not the end of the world yet" Said the voice of the elder Yagami.

"Sorry Brother, I just have to meet up with my friend" Hikari responded, laughing at the mess.

Getting back up from the accident, Hikari proceeded towards her room as Taichi said one more thing as he and Agumon passed by. "I am going to be out for long time, so don't wait for me at dinner!" Taichi finished while Agumon followed outside with a soccer ball.

"See you both later!" Agumon said as he headed out with Taichi and waving to the Light bearer.

"Ok, bye!" Tailmon waved back as she and Hikari entered the room.

Inside, Hikari placed her school bag down carefully while preparing for the trip ahead. Being fully prepared now for the trip ahead, Hikari was ready to go when Tailmon began with a question.

"Hikari... do you think we should tell the others about this?" Tailmon inquired.

"I don't know, we'd promised Takeru we would keep it a secret..." Hikari responded.

"I know that, but it's been around seven months now, Digimon don't usually take that long to be reborn. Do you think that maybe V-mon won't be coming back?" Tailmon questioned, thinking about the possibilities.

"But that can't be... V-mon actually gave his life to save them all according to Takeru, and Angemon had done the same before. They are not evil Digimon, they should be reborn soon, and maybe V-mon will be reborn where we found him in the first place. You're probably thinking too much of the matter, he'll appear sooner or later" Hikari finished, reaching out to Tailmon with a smile.

"You're probably right." Tailmon said, reaching out to Hikari and jumping on to get ready for their trip._ Still, throughout my experiences of the Digital World and with how Vamdemon treated some of his subjects, even they were reborn within a short time... _Tailmon continued to think, as Hikari opens the Digi-Port.

However, they heard a semi-loud landing just outside along with a waves of screams from below their room that caught their attention. Forgetting about going to the Digital World, Hikari and Tailmon looked outside the window and saw the surprising sight.

* * *

A total of seven months has passed. I was originally going to type the story that Daisuke narrates in full, but it came out to be just a summary of Adventure 02, so that idea is gone.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N:** One more five month time will pass through somewhere in this chapter, making it one year since the start. I could say that there is some action in this chapter, but I am not too sure of how it the execution went through, and I think something might have gone wrong... or maybe not, so tell me what you think.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Falldown**

Seeing the strange sight in the streets of Odaiba, Hikari immediately withdrew back into the room and picked up her D-Terminal. Opening it, she quickly sent a message to Takeru for help, as she got ready to go out the room instead of the planned trip to the Digital World.

Takeru stood at a higher elevated place of the Digital World, looking over the scenery that calmed his mood from some of the homework that classes delivered to him. Patamon hovered near his partner also looking out in the calm sight. Although they did have the objective to do their little search for Daisuke, Takeru needed the respite. However, the silence would only be broken as Takeru reached for his D-Terminal and opened up the e-mail.

**Takeru,**

**Please come back to Odaiba, there is an emergency.**

**-Hikari.**

At once, Takeru knew there would be something going on in Odaiba that would cause such a seemingly rushed e-mail, and not wasting another second, he began to run. Patamon tried to follow until he was falling behind in Takeru's quick paces.

"Hey, wait for me! What's going on Takeru?" Patamon asked, still trying to keep up.

Turning his head, just a little Takeru quickly explained. "Hikari sent an e-mail saying there is something going on back at home, seems urgent too. We need to go now." In the process, Takeru was not looking where he was going and Patamon saw "it" coming.

"Hey, lookout!" Patamon said, as Takeru continued to run forward and only started to turn back in his front view. It was too late though, as Takeru now found himself running into a big rock. Before actually running into the rock, Takeru did manage to plant his feet down into the ground and stop just around directly from the rock and his face.

Patamon, seeing the ludicrous sight of Takeru started to laugh. At the same time, Takeru slowly regained himself and turned to Patamon. "Hey... It's not funny..." Takeru half-complained, although he was grateful that he did not actually kiss the rock, but still got a laughing Patamon. Releasing a sigh, Takeru tried to get Patamon's attention back to the situation at hand.

"Ok Patamon, let's just go and help Hikari now..." Takeru finally said, at least the tension did not seem so bad now that he is beginning to see a laughter side to this little event.

"Alright, but just slow down a little, it can't be that bad. Hikari has Tailmon, right?" Patamon said, shifting to a more serious tone.

"Yes, but let's hurry back anyway, it seemed urgent." Takeru replied, as Patamon landed in his hands and he began to run again.

In the Odaiba region, Hikari and Tailmon peered over the corner of a large building to where the site of possible danger is. Sounds of their own footsteps fill the air, as the place is empty from the earlier event.

"Hikari, something doesn't feel right..." Tailmon said, feeling a sense of coldness in the area.

"It's cold isn't it? This feeling... for sure it is--" Hikari confirmed but not finishing the sentence as a disturbing noise came from behind them.

Turning around, the pair looked to the familiar figure, but with variation in some parts of the structure and ice.

"Is that Ogremon?" Hikari questioned at the figure that seemed very hostile, matching their dark environment.

"That's a Hyougamon, Ice variation of Ogremon, and it doesn't seem friendly..." Tailmon said, alert at what the enemy Digimon might do.

The description for this Digimon would be very accurate according to Tailmon, as Hyougamon got hostile and began to attack the pair with his Ice club. The attack misses by just a pinch as Hikari with Tailmon leap out of the way. Tailmon got ready for the upcoming battle and even ready to evolve.

"Hikari! Let's take this one out, he may not be alone" Tailmon informed Hikari, expecting the worse from this situation.

"Wait! There may still be other people around here, we must try and get away to a clear area before fighting or else there will be too much damage to this area," Hikari said.

As the pair did their talking, Hyougamon took the opportunity and to attack. Rushing up to Tailmon, Hyougamon's Ice club came into direct contact as Tailmon flew to the side in pain. Hikari moves forward to pick up Tailmon and then run away, knowing that danger is near. While running, Hikari looks down to survey Tailmon's damage, although in pain Tailmon is still conscious.

"Tailmon... Are you ok?" Hikari asked, as she ran out into a more clearing. However, Tailmon knew that the enemy would be on their trail and tried to look behind Hikari to see where the ice ogre would be.

"I am fine... but look out!" Tailmon warned as Hyougamon came into view. At the same time, very conveniently for the two, Hikari was busy checking on Tailmon that she did not see a bump on the floor area and tripped.

Being on the ground, Hikari and Tailmon could now clearly see shades of black in the sky seeming to flow somewhere. Hikari and Tailmon continued to look around in their area that is along the sides of Odaiba city where there is nobody around. Since they have fallen down, Hyougamon stopped to look down on the two with a sense of victory, but that very time gave Hikari and Tailmon enough time to come up with a retaliation plan. Knowing that it would be impossible to go into perfect form because of all the current conditions around, Hikari simply use her Digimental to evolve. Opening her D-Terminal, Hikari also realised that she could also get a chance to use her temporary second Digimental.

_I never thought I would use this... and it feels strange using it as well... _Hikari thought as she activated the Digimental of Courage, causing Tailmon to evolve into a larger Digimon with a flame body. Lynxmon.

The appearance of the fire Digimon alerted Hyougamon as he jumped back in surprise, but continued to laugh. After starting at each other for about a few seconds, the two Digimon jumped at each other into battle. While Hyougamon uses his Iceball Throw, Lynxmon's Thermal Mane technique emitted a heat that negates the projectiles and the attack force hits right up against Hyougamon. Flying backwards, the Ice ogre receives another wave of damage as a cluster of stars rain on him, and appearing above him was Pegasmon.

"Hikari! Are you all right?" Asked Takeru as he entered the scene from Hikari's left side.

"Yes, I am fine. However, there seems to be something seriously wrong here..." Hikari replied while pointing to the sky.

Takeru looked in the direction that Hikari pointed to and his eyes widened, and then turned back to the current battle. Lynxmon launched forward with a claw swipe that effectively knock the opposing Digimon back. Takeru now turns to Pegasmon and gives a direct command.

"Take him down quickly!" Takeru instructed.

Pegasmon follows through by releasing Silver Blaze beam that sends Hyougamon down for good. However, as the ice Digimon gets up again, a black circle appears under him and Hyougamon drops down into the black circle and disappear. Hikari did not know what to say to how the opposing Digimon disappear, but Takeru almost knew what is happening and as Pegasmon lands, he gets on for his ride.

"Takeru, where are you going?" Hikari asked as Lynxmon reverted to Tailmon.

"I need to check something, follow me..." Takeru responded, having some sort of urgency in his voice. Hikari and Tailmon decided to follow on foot as Pegasmon flew to the direction of the black energy, as the place is not far.

Even though the travelling is a short distance, for Takeru it is equal to about an hour of apprehension. Yet, the result that came did confirm Takeru's worst fear as memories of that day returns to him in full clarity. The images of the horrible fight, his own voice filling the air, and the deaths that took place, all returned in full clarity.

"No!" Takeru shouted as he noticed the structure of the black swirling vortex in the sky that was the same as the one he seen seven months ago with Archnemon.

"Takeru? What's wrong?" Hikari called from below as she heard Takeru's distressed voice. Not giving an answer immediately, Takeru motioned for Pegasmon to move, flying forward and shooting a charged Silver Blaze that blew up in the centre of the swirling warp and destroyed it.

The black energies having disappeared from the area, Pegasmon landed next to Hikari and Tailmon while Takeru jumped off. Hikari could see the worry fill Takeru's eyes but did not know what exactly caused her friend to change. Nevertheless, Hikari spoke up in attempt to know.

"... What was all that about, Takeru?" Hikari started, hoping not to get an explosive reaction even though it was rare that the Chosen of Hope ever would explode against his own friends.

Takeru slowly turned to face Hikari, and he took a deep breathe before answering her question. "That... what you just saw... is the thing that appeared on that day... seeing it reminded me of everything forsaken memory of that day..." Takeru managed to say, before taking in another breath and trying to calm himself.

Silence filled the air as Hikari and Takeru along with their partners walked away from the site where the dark warp appeared and into the more remote areas of the city. Hikari was appalled at hearing of the fact that it was this kind of force that Takeru and Daisuke got into with their encounter long before. As they arrived at the clear area, Hikari was about to speak again when a beep interrupted the scene. Picking out his D-Terminal, Takeru read the new message that Iori sent.

**Takeru,**

**If you or Hikari could spare some help it would**

**be great. In this area of Odaiba, there appears**

**to be this strange thing in the sky and an evil**

**Digimon appeared. This one is really strong, **

**perhaps even to the level of a perfect type.**

**Aquilamon, Ankylomon, and Kabuterimon are **

**having trouble against this one, we need help**

**immediately!**

**-Iori**

As Takeru finish reading his message, Hikari got a message on her D-Terminal and she opened it up and the message came through.

**Hikari,**

**If you or somebody else can somehow quickly get some**

**help over here would be great. A strange power has **

**appeared in the sky and a lot evil Digimon seems to **

**have emerged from this. I believe that Stingmon can't**

**hold out much longer and any help would be appreciated!**

**-Ken**

"Looks like our friends are in trouble as well! We should go help them..." Hikari said, noting the urgent email that follows the current ones.

"Yeah... alright then, it seems like I can reach Iori and the others right now, I will go there and assist them while you go and help Ken?" Takeru said, getting onto Pegasmon and getting ready to fly.

"Yes, looks like we may have to round up everyone if things like this continue" Hikari said while activating the Digimental of Light, evolving Tailmon into Nefertimon. Flying off into the air, the two pairs went to help their friends.

_So that was what it looks like... so eerie and filled with so much darkness..._ Hikari thought as she flew with Nefertimon throughout the sky to Ken's location, but not sticking out too much to the world, as there is currently no enemy Digimon in their current location and it would be strange to fly around when there is no immediate danger. Still, flying on Nefertimon is a faster means of transportation and who knows if Ken is being overrun by the 'a lot' of Digimon by now.

As the Chosen of Light approach Tamachi, the same energy appears over the city with the black swirling energy. Immediately Hikari could recognise the Bakemon in the area wandering around and terrorising the local citizens. Very soon after, Stingmon appears from the secret hidden area from the side and attacks that repel the Bakemon. As the area clears up, Ken stays beside the tiring out Stingmon. Landing next to her companion, Hikari greets Ken as they continue the battle and survey the area. Although Ken was saddened by the mysterious disappearance of Daisuke, the other Chosen managed to keep in touch with him and thus Ken knew he still has his friend to depend on even in times of emergency.

"There is just no possible way to dispose of these wild Digimon without at least damaging something around the area..." Ken said, being cognizant of some of the damage already done in the area.

"Perhaps if we destroy the warp up there it will help..." Hikari suggested, looking towards the dark portal that gave bone-chilling effects.

"Yes, but I think I will need your help in doing that, these Bakemon seems stronger than before" Ken said, but then noticing Nefertimon shooting down a few with just mere shots. Stingmon on the other hand, had troubles taking down a few even with Spiking Finish.

Giving their partners the signal, Nefertimon launches off a Rosetta Stone to Stingmon that impales the stone onto his blade and then swinging the rock with power from the blade into the warp. The attack met the black sky and causing an explosion that successfully dissolves the dark energies. However, the Bakemon remain a threat, as they gather around the two airborne Digimon.

Nefertimon fires off Curse of Queen beams that instantly dissolve the Bakemon into data rather than they disappear under a black patch like Hyougamon did. Stingmon launched forward again and to attack even though tiredness drew onto him. As Stingmon breaks through the lines of Bakemon, they surprisingly went down easy as to before when it took several strikes to take them down.

"Huh? This is strange... earlier we couldn't even take down a few of them, but now they go down so easily" Ken noted as the Bakemon swarms dissolve.

"Maybe it was the darkness that gave them power" Hikari suggested as the sky returned to normal while the Bakemon only struggled to even get an attack at either Nefertimon or Stingmon.

"Yes, but Nefertimon took them out with ease before that, so I wonder how things are like this..." Ken speculates while the Bakemon completely dissolves.

"Probably because Tailmon got her tail ring back, and that brings Nefertimon's power up to a perfect I guess. I honestly don't know the darkness only appeared recently in my area too..." Hikari finished while the two larger Digimon turns back into Tailmon and Minomon.

Meanwhile, at another location of Odaiba, Aquilamon and Ankylomon struggles to stand up while Kabuterimon flew backwards. The large black dinosaur Digimon gives off a mean roar as he looks down on the struggling Digimon.

"This is harsh! We should at least be able to take down one perfect with three adults, so why are we losing so badly without much of a fight?" Miyako said, as the MasterTyranomon gets ready for Master Fire blast.

"Look out!" Aquilamon said and flew right into the perfect Digimon and shifting the direction of the blast into the city road.

"There has got to be some driving force behind this type of power. Even three adults should have been enough to take on one perfect form, especially if it is not a super powerful one," Koushiro said as he analysed his own Digivice that has red letters scattered around the screen.

"We need a plan to get out of this one for now, head on confrontation would be futile for us," Iori suggested as his two other allies agreed. As they start to run, MasterTyranomon attacked with Master Claw that barely missed them. Although unscathed from the attack, the impact on the ground threw them all off course. Just as the MasterTyranomon got ready for another Master Fire, a Silver Blaze beam interrupts. Pegasmon appears over the large dinosaur, as MasterTyranomon seemed more annoyed at the beam than to the other attacks from earlier.

"Takeru! You've finally come... we were about to run away" Iori said as Takeru landed with Pegasmon and regrouped. Koushiro took note that Pegasmon made a sting to MasterTyranomon, which drew in some thought.

"This one is tough! Even with the four of us how can we possibly take on a perfect form?" Miyako asked, almost afraid but still going along with the plan.

"We just have to try! Alright, let's give it what we got!" Takeru said, knowing that it would be impossible to sneak around this big Digimon to destroy the black warp without having the enemy Digimon notice. At the same time, the Digimon flew into battle with Blast Laser, Tail Hammer, Mega Blaster and Shooting Star attacks. Upon impact, the first three merely dispersed while the Shooting stars landed made a slight annoyance to the MasterTyranomon.

Koushiro also noticed the impact of just one Digimon and looked back down on the red marks on the screen of his Digivice. Concluding, he knew he would have to risk this one and hope success comes. "I think I found out something..."

"What did you find?" Iori asked, hoping that it would be a solution.

"I am not entirely sure, but we have to try. Iori and Miyako use your digimental evolutions," Koushiro said.

"What? Now?" Miyako said, as Ankylomon and Aquilamon backs off a few paces while reverting to Armadimon and Hawkmon.

"Let's just try this, as long as it helps us, it can't go wrong," Iori said, trusting Koushiro's new idea.

At the next instant, Hawkmon and Armadimon evolved with digimental of Love and Knowledge, forming into Horusmon and Digmon. Joining the battle, the two released their Red Sun and Gold Rush attacks. The two attacks produced a surprising result as MasterTyranomon actually reacted in pain to the two attacks.

"Wow! Now we're beating him, but how?" Miyako said as the three armour Digimon attacks the MasterTyranomon that lifts off from the ground and slams into the ground to create a small quake.

Just like Hyougamon, the MasterTyranomon disappears through a black patch appearing on the floor.

"He's gone! What's going on around here?" Iori said, looking on with how the enemy Digimon disappears.

"I don't get it, what's going on here?" Digmon said, as everything seemed to die down in noise level.

"Right now however, we've got to destroy that thing!" Takeru said, giving the message for Pegasmon to fly up and destroy the dark energy. Immediately the flying Digimon did so, while earning some reactions to the unusualness from the others at the battlefield.

"What? Hey, wait..." Koushiro said, not entirely sure of what is going on. However, when Pegasmon flew up and destroys the dark warp, Koushiro notice the red markings in his Digivice slowly disappear. "This... is weird..."

"Hey, What's going on? What's all this that's happening?" Miyako asked as Pegasmon landed with all the Digimon revert back into their child forms.

"I have no idea myself... Takeru, do you know what's going on?" Koushiro asked as Takeru turned to face him.

"A little... but I think it would be better to explain it sometime later..." Takeru trailed off, as they all left the scene.

No more of the dark portals came into Odaiba or the area around that place. Because of that, peace seems to have returned for the time being. Later though, Takeru did send everyone e-mails regarding the nature of how the dark portal works from experience while Koushiro went into deep research on why the enemy Digimon seem to only react to armour Digimon attacks while normal champion Digimon attacks were completely ineffective in dealing with them. The Chosen kept in touch particularly through this very event of this day. After all, it was the first type of real threat that appears to them since their battle with BelialVamdemon. The Digimon appearance did not leave that much damage on the cities compared to either earthquakes or earlier Digimon attacks. The Chosen knew however, that while the link between the Digital World and the real world is there and everyone knew what Digimon is, the only real way to travel currently to the Digital World is by using the D-3 Digivice that not many have. Even for those that have them, rarely anyone would go because there was simply almost no reason to unless it is for vacation purposes. The real reason for the Digimon emergence only bothered the Chosen a little, as they only appeared that day. Nevertheless, Koushiro tries hard to look into the matter and tries to contact Gennai in hopes to know what it would be, and a reply has yet to come...

_**Five Months Later**_

Daisuke put his head back to rest, the journey in the Digital World has been very tiring, but at least it gives him the needed time for Gennai clear up some things that is going around and hopefully to find a way back home for him. Nat-chan herself just stuck close to Daisuke in whatever adventure they went through, as they proved helpful to her to getting to know how the Digital World really is. Along the travels, Nat-chan also meets up with some of the Digimon that Daisuke helped throughout his previous adventure and added much more understanding to the story that made more sense to her now. Although the funniest thing would be the fact that about all the Digimon they meet never seem to remember who Daisuke is, but easily remedied when Daisuke raises his voice to forcefully make Digimon remember. Overall, the travels were boring for Daisuke and exciting for the BlackTailmon. Even now, riding with Revolmon on the ride is more or less something normal now. Revolmon himself knows that Daisuke and Nat-chan do not always live through some weather conditions; he tried to do something that would suit the pair better. After all, the time they had been travelling sure brought them together into thriving in the Digital World.

"Well, I must say... a lot of weird stuff has happened throughout time, looks like something may be happening soon..." Revolmon said as he took notice of the not-so-pleasant sky now.

Daisuke put his head back up again, knowing that the conditions from long ago have gone through change and the Digital World is not the same as before. Sure, all the local Digimon are still friendly like before, but the sky does seem to emit evil when nighttime approaches along with the fact that more dark warps appear in the sky much to Daisuke's dismay. Nevertheless, the boy did not really go through many battles and even of the battles that came his way, they were nothing serious.

"Yeah, it looks like as if somebody is trying to rip through the sky... no matter though, we'll just take him down like any other!" Daisuke said, leaning back to relax again. At the same time, he peers over to left side, seeing Nat-chan sleeping in a curled up position with her tail also curled up. Daisuke smiles at his the sight of his current partner, surely, for him it has been almost an eternity since they officially became partners, and now they at least know each other better and make big impact upon each other. For Daisuke his sense of feeling and understanding has improved because of the relationship while Nat-chan learns about the general world and friendships. Slowly Daisuke drifts off to sleep; almost feeling like nothing can ruin his nearly perfect time in the Digital World as of now.

Evening approaches on the horizon as the Digital World's sun goes down. Even though the Chosen and partner Digimon has accepted the reality of a real sun into their lives, they still dislike it because of the heating effect it has on their dark colour outlook. However, the winds that are blowing in the area currently are far from normal and even threatening the course for the three.

"Whoa, what is happening? Revolmon, are you sure we're going on the right path?" Asked Daisuke as the wind got fiercer and blew a chill towards the three of them. Normally they would expect a chill from being in a desert area, but this is totally out of the normal even for them.

"We are, but apparently, there is something or perhaps someone trying to stop us... I don't know if this related to the recent events before, but..." Revolmon managed to say before a large bursting sound from above became apparent for the three. In the fading light of the day, the three barely manages to jump off their ride as a large grey mass smashes down on their location.

Daisuke recognises the enemy Digimon, but whether it was the same one from before or not is unclear. Not wasting anytime, he and Nat-chan stood up and got ready for battle.

"Looks like this one will require you to evolve!" Daisuke said to Nat-chan as the two faced the giant insectoid Digimon while Daisuke held up his D-3. However, after passing by a few seconds, nothing happened and Nat-chan only looked back to Daisuke while Daisuke looked at his D-3 in confusion as to why no evolution occurred. At the point, the giant Digimon took note of the unsuspecting pair and attacked with his two scissor arms.

With the unexpected attack, Daisuke and Nat-chan jumps out of the way while the claws dig into the ground with sand flying everywhere. While Daisuke and his partner regrouped, Revolmon started his own attacks to the large Digimon for ruining his ride along with everything that is pack into it. Firing off Justice Bullets at the large Digimon's head, but no reaction came as the large Digimon turned around and swung his scissor claws at Revolmon, who flew down to avoid getting hit. Unaware, Nat-chan jumps up from behind and forces a Neko Kick that moves the large Digimon a bit, as the impact sinks in on his head. Being more powerful, the large Digimon finally moves with his sharp claws near his mouth and swipes across the area with his Scissor Arms Omega attack that flew sand around and into the air. With the attack in effect, Daisuke could confirm that this grey-insectoid is Ookuwamon.

Even with the combined powers of both adult level Digimon, the perfect form insect manages to throw them off to running with the two large scissor claws.

"Hey! I have a plan... maybe you should jump over this big insect while I shoot into his ugly mouth, what do you say? Worth the gamble?" Revolmon said, taking out his second revolver.

"Whatever works..." Nat-chan responded, immediately jumping up into the air and then kicking off one of the scissor claws of Ookuwamon and flying overhead. At this opportunity, since Ookuwamon's attention is at Nat-chan, Revolmon starts to strafe with Justice Bullets into the mouth area. However, the resulting pain that is done caused the insect to cry out in pain and while Nat-chan delivers another Neko Kick, the scissor claw of the large Digimon starts to swing around very violently and randomly. In the process, Revolmon tries to step back from the large noisemaker but one scissor claw strike manages to come down at him and just lightly coming in contact. Nat-chan tries to jump off, but in mid air, Ookuwamon just manages to swing randomly to his left and hit Nat-chan aside.

"Nat-chan!" Daisuke yelled out as he saw the impact come, but another thrust by Ookuwamon into the sand and causing a wave to fly at Daisuke hindered him from doing anything.

Ookuwamon turns to face Revolmon, who is responsible for the temporary pain. At the same time, Revolmon notice the empty guns at his disposal and starts to laugh in fear. At the same time, Daisuke moves to Nat-chan, seeing that his partner is all right and just a little hurt from the pain. Relief came over him as Nat-chan woke up from the impact, as the stood up together only to hear a sharp cry of pain. Looking to their right side, Revolmon flew further back in at the front side of Ookuwamon as the large insect went near Revolmon. Running towards the scene, Daisuke and Nat-chan tried to stop the large insect, as Ookuwamon got ready for the next attack.

"Stop it!" Daisuke yelled as Ookuwamon lifted one foot and Nat-chan ready to jump for another attack. The next moment went by slowly, as Revolmon got up only to see a giant foot stomping him back into the sand. Daisuke's mouth opens up, but no words come out of it as the impact made a sound that is not very pleasant to the ears of Daisuke. In the process, Nat-chan jumps in front of Ookuwamon's face and delivers a Neko Punch. Now Ookuwamon's attention redirects to Nat-chan and follows the quick cat further away from the scene while Daisuke examines the fatally injured Revolmon.

"Hey, are you all right?" Daisuke asked, even though he probably knew the answer already.

"Hehe... looks like this gamble did not turn out so well..." Revolmon said, letting out a quiet laugh.

"What? Are you kidding me? You still gamble at a time like this? We'd better get you somewhere safe for now..." Daisuke said in response, but Revolmon refused to be moved.

"It's alright... I knew the consequences of gambling like this, I've done it all my life... it's just that today isn't my lucky day... haha, and now it really cost me my life..." Revolmon said, satisfaction filling his own voice.

"Wait, what about us? You can't just..." Daisuke trailed off, seeing this scene reminds him of a distant and painful memory as Revolmon's data slowly dissolves.

"I'm sorry Daisuke, it looks like I won't be able to go on... but you've probably learned enough to survive in this world anyway. Heck, with your positive attitude, there is no way you cannot survive in this world, especially if it is easier than the world you were at before. Anyway, this is where it ends for me I guess... sorry, I might see you again if I am reborn though, so don't feel too sad!" Revolmon concluded, disappearing completely as Daisuke feels a similar pain creep up on him again.

Nat-chan arrives at Daisuke's location, looking over to Daisuke, and notices that Revolmon is now dead and gone. "Daisuke..." She said, concern filling her voice as not only did Daisuke seem shaken by another Digimon death, but also she had barely even dealt any damage to Ookuwamon because of the hard insect shell.

"Why... why must Digimon die needlessly? I don't understand it's as if life is taken for granted..." Daisuke muttered as despair seem to fill his voice at losing another friend.

"Daisuke... we have to run..." Nat-chan suggested, but Daisuke took out his D-3 and stood up while facing the insect Digimon who stopped upon seeing Daisuke stand up to him.

"Enough of this! I've had it with you! How many more innocent Digimon must you destroy until you are satisfied?" Daisuke said out in anger at the insect Digimon who did not move. At that moment, Daisuke's eyes flashed red as his D-3 began to emit a dark light. The dark light is what truly got Ookuwamon to back off as Nat-chan jumped up and herself almost turning into black sphere energy.

As the sphere opened up, Nat-chan emerged in her newest form, with red eyes much like those that appeared in Daisuke's eyes along with many black bats along with a black face with red eyes along the shoulder area and added with chains. As if acting on demand, "Nat-chan" rushed forward and immediately seals Poison on Ookuwamon. In retaliation, Ookuwamon tries to attack, but a horde of bats gather around all over the insect and starts taking off bits and bits of data from the insect. With enough pain dealt, Ookuwamon started to fall down into the land where there is a dark patch. However, before sinking in completely, "Nat-chan" flies down and manages to get hold of one scissor claw and pulling the Digimon back out from the black patch and while airborne, a Darkness Wave is released, completely dissolving the Ookuwamon who screeched in pain.

At first sight, Daisuke felt a sense of happiness at Nat-chan being able to evolve again, but supplanted by feelings of fear when the cruel parts of the fight began, and Daisuke also started to think about what this could mean. _Is this really Nat-chan? No... That's really... me... my emotions... no... no no no... This can't be happening!_ Daisuke ended with his thoughts as he figured it out. Nat-chan is forced to evolve on his behalf with his anger.

Being true to that statement, Nat-chan continued with Darkness Wave around the whole airfield until every bit of data from Ookuwamon is destroyed. Along with that, "Nat-chan" also released one more Darkness Wave onto the dark patch that Ookuwamon almost disappeared into while her left hand turns into a sharp spike, flying up, and impaling the dark portal, absorbing the dark energies that immediately flew towards Daisuke's D-3 afterwards. As the dark energy came in, Daisuke could feel a heavy feeling as everything around him seemed to stop at that moment.

_What's going on?_ Daisuke thought as another voice came into the scene.

**Hahaha! That was beautiful, Chosen one... you managed to awaken the darkness within yourself and even used it to evolve your partner... truly an exemplary act as part of the forces of darkness... **said the voice from out of nowhere.

Daisuke tensed up at the voice, he understood it now. Darkness is very much alive with evil dwelling within it, and this evil is what he used for Nat-chan to evolve, and he realises the darkness was trying to eat him at the same time.

"Be quiet! What do you know?" Daisuke said, trying to regain himself from what he just did.

**Really now... don't deny it, you just did what was right as part of the dark forces, why don't you join us, Chosen one of the darkness, your darkness would prove useful in the near future... **Said the voice again.

"Silence!" Daisuke yelled out as the world around him returns to reality and "Nat-chan" turning around and landing in front of him. "Stop this... it doesn't matter anymore... return to me... Nat-chan!" Daisuke said with his voice starting to tremble, and at the same time rejecting a force that seemed to be trying to pull him down.

At Daisuke's voice, the LadyDevimon reverts into BlackTailmon, lying still on the sand while Daisuke struggles over next to the Black cat. Falling down on his knees, Daisuke reaches out and picks up his partner, holding her close and closing his eyes in disappointment, but not letting any tears fall down.

Shortly after, Nat-chan regains consciousness and notice herself in Daisuke's arms. "Daisuke..." Nat-chan said, trying to get a look on Daisuke's face that is half-hidden.

"Nat-chan... I'm sorry... I let myself be controlled... I really should not have done that..." Daisuke said, holding Nat-chan close.

Nat-chan did not do anything, but stayed still. She spoke when Daisuke let out a sigh of distress. "Daisuke... I am here... we will always carry on..." Nat-chan said, trying to reassure Daisuke.

"Will you forgive me?" Daisuke asked, still not convinced.

"Yes, because... you are **Daisuke.**" Nat-chan said.

At that, Daisuke reflected back to when Nat-chan self-destructed for the first time in that strange world.

_"I'm right here. I'm right here next to you. I'm not scared." Daisuke said, standing in front of the corrupted Digimon._

_Really? Nat-chan's telepathic voice said._

_"Because... you are __**Nat-chan**__." Daisuke said, awakening the corruption._

For a while, there was silence in the area as Daisuke kept holding on to Nat-chan before he felt his strength fading away. Slowly Daisuke fell on his left side, still holding his partner close. "Nat-chan, Thank you." Daisuke said as the pair found sleep through their exhaustion.

* * *

I was really thinking whether to split this chapter up into two pieces of not, but I suppose as one piece it did fine... well, I do not really know. Anyway, the anger scene is more or less based upon that certain episode in Tamers if you know. One thing I took note is Daisuke never did go through some sort of Dark evolution, so why not put him on the spot with the bittersweetness of such an experience?


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N:** so one year has passed since the start of the fic, now there probably will not be anymore, and if there is, it will probably be a span of days or week. Anyway, onward!

* * *

**Chapter 5: New Dawn**

The sun in the Digital World rises over the horizon as Daisuke and Nat-chan awakes from their slumber. Being up made them realise that the events of yesterday were indeed real and not just a dream. As they see the somewhat messy destruction around them, and what use to be their transportation--all in ruins.

Daisuke let out a sigh, surely there was no helping the situation from last night, but he knew he must carry on despite the loss. Now that he has made his first mistake, Daisuke understands exactly what is needed for a good friendship between Digimon and their partners so that there will not be any result of Dark evolutions. In a brighter way for Daisuke, he has now walked in Taichi's shoes about having a Digimon partner dark evolve as Daisuke never got a feel of what it is like to experience a dark evolve scene besides just hearing the story about SkullGreymon and then tossing it aside like it has no meaning behind it.

After getting up, Daisuke let out a small laughter, the words of Gennai saying that he is not affected by his own powers seemed false now. Nevertheless, after accepting the shock from the losses, Daisuke slowly and quietly moves forward towards the direction he thinks may lead him out of the desert.

"Daisuke, where are we going to do now?" Nat-chan partner asks, following closely behind as they continue to move towards a direction that is hopefully beneficial to them.

"I don't exactly know... but we must go somewhere instead of just staying in one place..." Daisuke replied, then taking out his D-3. Nothing much has changed on his D-3 since the last battle, now the D-3 seemed to be more responsive like his old one. As the pair goes further in their current course, Daisuke could see the D-3 reacting a little more, and from this, he knew he was going in the right direction. Or at least he thinks so.

Of course, without their ride and the black colours of their outlook working against the two, the pair quickly became tired from the sun's heat. Quickly sitting down on the shady side of a nearby rock, the pair took a short break.

"How much longer, Daisuke?" Nat-chan asked, almost falling asleep from the tiring heat.

"I don't know... we were asleep for most of the ride that just brought us out to nowhere..." Daisuke replied, putting his head back to rest a little. At the same time, he also started to reflect how what has happened through his time here in the Digital World.

True enough that his new partnership completely changed the general shape of his adventure in terms of fighting or just everyday work. Still, Daisuke did not mind the change as to him it was rather a blessing to be given a second chance. Still Daisuke did not find a use for his new digimental, but given what just happened, he would rather save that for later.

_Hmm, I wonder what drove me into that state... it's as if I was somebody else. Now that I think about it, the way I burned with fury and wanted to defeat the enemy at any cost did seem unusual for me... maybe it's my powers... no... can't be. Whatever. Don't care about that as long as it doesn't happen again. Although I do wonder what Nat-chan was thinking at that time... right now she seems fine like her usual self, but what did she feel when I forced that evolution?_Daisuke continued to think as Nat-chan walked around the shade.

With the time that passed by, Daisuke's pain over V-mon is assuaged by both time and his new partnership. Of course, even with a new partner the road of life is no easy even for Daisuke. Nevertheless, Daisuke is content enough to press through even the hardest times like the fights. True that the experience just from less then a day ago would prove to be discouraging for the Chosen; however, this does not mean that he would simply give up. After all, the bitter sweetness of the last battle at least improved his partnership with Nat-chan. Certainly Daisuke kept the spirit in his heart burning with enthusiasm. Another thing that Daisuke did keep with him is the stubbornness, and this is the good type. Even though Daisuke is without any sign of officially possessing the symbols of either courage or friendship, he still knows that they are crucial to his situation. Daisuke barely changed in outward appearance except some hair growing longer with nothing to cut it with, or the fact that trying to cut his own hair ended in a disaster whenever he tried as he had no mirror with him and he was afraid of cutting too much pair. Now, there is hardly any type of cutting utensils in the Digital World for cutting hair except maybe kitchen knives in restaurants, so let alone cutting hair.

For Nat-chan, the time has been a great learning experience. At the first stages, the black cat did not even know of the evolution process or the Digital World. However, upon arriving at the Digital World, Nat-chan quickly adapted to the various systems and weather but kept a growing relationship with Daisuke. By now, Nat-chan knew that it would be impossible to go through the Digital World or without fighting because of the living conditions. Her only wish at her mysterious formation in her own world was to have a partner. Then, she met Daisuke. Although much friction occurred between her and Chibimon, she understood now that the 'puny dolphin' was Daisuke's partner and there could not be any changes made. At least not during that time. Now that Daisuke is officially partnered with her, Nat-chan began to see why and how Chibimon would always be high in spirits. It was directly from the effervescent Daisuke that always seem to bring change to everything around him. Still, there is much to be explored with Daisuke's constant mentions of 'planet earth' as Nat-chan hears about but never gets a chance to experience the great things. More importantly, Nat-chan also hears of Daisuke's great friends that she herself find interesting to meet.

Under the cooling shade of the rock, Nat-chan walks around in hopes of finding some place that would lead them out of the middle of nowhere. However, she was unaware of the little block that seemed to stick out in front, tripped over it, and landed on the other side of the block.

"Nat-chan!" Daisuke said as he rushed to her location in the shade. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Yes, but what was that?" Nat-chan asked, looking back on what exactly she tripped.

The pair looked at the block that just stuck out in the middle of nowhere and wondered what this could be. Daisuke reached out and placed his hands on the block, it had a familiar feel to it. Gripping on, Daisuke could half-confirm what this block and structure could be. The idea seemed ridiculous to Daisuke since Yukio Oikawa breaks down the barrier between both worlds these were not really needed. Nevertheless, Daisuke began to dig around the sand around the point of the block to discover what it could be.

"Help me out here; I think it may just be something that would be beneficial to us..." Daisuke said, continuing to dig around the block.

Of course, without much help from the survival in the desert and also seeing Daisuke recognise something familiar gets Nat-chan into the search as they dig deeper to discover that this block turned out to be a lot large than the point that Nat-chan tripped on. After about a short time of digging, the two could see the object in full. The colour is mostly black with the backside being smaller and contracting into a smaller block itself while the front has a small dent with the dent part being made with some different material from the rest of the structure. Nat-chan could see that Daisuke obviously recognised the object, but what it could do is to be questioned.

"Daisuke? What is this?" She asked, not knowing what it could be.

"A Television... one of the things that we use to travel between the two worlds. I don't know why there would be one right here" Daisuke replied, then taking out his D-3 that seems to react faintly to the screen.

"We could this to travel back, can't we?" Nat-chan questioned, almost excited to go on to a new place rather than stay in the Digital World.

"Maybe... last time that Gennai said that my D-3 did not have the function to do so, but... maybe..." Daisuke said, holding the D-3 to the TV screen and smiling a bit on the inside in hopes of this working. And for once, Daisuke's wish became true, as a bright light shot out from the screen and covered the pair. Very quickly, they disappeared into the screen without much of a reaction because of the quick process.

When the two opened their eyes again from the bright light, they noticed a bizarre sight around them as well as that they seemed suspended in mid-air.

"What is this place?" Nat-chan said, appalled by the strange location.

"It looks like that place from meeting with BelialVamdemon... but it doesn't seem like it..." Daisuke said, trying to figure out where they are.

The place they were floating about has weird pieces of data that seemed like swirling lines connected in an odd shape. These came in colours of red, dark red, blue, dark blue, purple, dark purple, blue-green and green around the sides of the dimension that looks like a tube. The data pieces seemed to be also moving in a vortex-like motion around the ends of the tube where there is a white patch with occasional white sphere bubbles coming out. The bottom half of the tube seemed to be a reddish colour while the top part is dark blue at the top and gradually getting lighter as it reached the middle where a sudden change to red was.

Of course, while the environment seems to move about, Daisuke and Nat-chan could remain stationary and nothing would happen to them. Of course, with no movement would seem boring and uninteresting so the two 'glide' along the path to see what could come out of it. They knew the white warp on their back would obviously lead them back to the Digital World so they moved forward. After moving for about a minute and getting to nowhere and not even seeing the other end of the tunnel, the pair gives up and stops. However, at this point it is already too late to turn back as the warp them came through is now out of sight when they look back.

"This is wonderful, get trapped in some unknown place... although... it does seem familiar in some way..." Daisuke said, just floating into a lying down position With Nat-chan floating close by.

"What do we do, Daisuke?" Nat-chan asked, also seeing no solution to what the place could be or how they would get out.

"I don't know... we could try going on if that helps..." Daisuke suggested, trying to relax himself and not get stressful over being in some weird-dimension.

"You don't necessarily have to do that. Perhaps I can help..." Said a familiar message voice from out of nowhere into the dimension.

"Huh? That old grandpa voice... it must be Gennai!" Daisuke said and taking note of the voice and trying to find out which direction it came from.

"What do you mean old grandpa? What have I ever done to you, Daisuke?" Asked Gennai's voice.

"Umm... nothing... anyway. Do you know where I am? Or better yet, where are you?" Daisuke asked, still not knowing which direction to look.

"I am currently trapped in my base. I do not know exactly what happened, but for a while now my colleagues and I have broken communications with the worlds around us and we are just trying to fix that. As for your location, it is the connecting bridge between the Digital World and your world, and that is why I am only able to contact you like this" Gennai's voice explained.

"Oh... so what exactly happened? Could it be something to do with the dark energies appearing the Digital World? Those things have been giving us lots of trouble, and why is it that my D-3 works to open the warp between worlds but not bring me there?" Daisuke asked again, curious for some answers.

"I honestly don't know much myself, connection with Qinglongmon is also impossible at this time as well. As for your Digivice, it certainly is strange, but that is not really a concern now. I believe if it is developing the functions of the normal Digivice of this kind, then it cannot be too bad... anyway, the only thing I can do for you in here is to bring you back home. I have worked everything out so that your absence will be covered with genuine records and everything. Do note that it has been one year since you left, so you probably will need to catch up on some school material on your own time. In addition, because of this I cannot bring you into your hometown directly, you are going to have to travel back there from the location that I set. Do not worry about the yen cost, I have that all handled in the beginning too, so all you have to do is walk in with the ticket that I am going to give you. Yes, this is an express train, so it won't take long." Gennai explained.

"Huh? One year? Has it been that long already? Impossible!" Daisuke said, not believing the time that actually passed since his disappearance.

"Yes, perhaps you just didn't notice it because you really had no calendar or anything along with that the seasons in the Digital World passes by on a different system. Nevertheless, I need to get back to work, so be careful when you go back into your own world; there is no telling what could happen..." Gennai finished.

"Hey, wait a second! What about my friends, did you even tell them what happened to me? And where exactly am I going to be?" Daisuke, but receiving no answer as the next moment he and Nat-chan seem to fly forwards at a high speed. Immediately they saw the white warp on the other side and they flew through.

Of course, with Daisuke's luck, he and Nat-chan ended up at a higher place again and before they even could let out a syllable, they fell to the hard ground, but unlike the other time this was just a simple fall like falling down from a tree as they fell onto the hard ground near trees in a park.

"Ugh! Why does he do that to me all the time?" Daisuke said, trying not to be loud in case if somebody is nearby.

At the same time of Daisuke's crashing down, in Odaiba, Takaishi residence young Takeru is busy writing in his journal. Although quiet and peaceful, a sudden slip and loud landing noise causes Takeru to look in the direction of the noise. Going to its source, Takeru's eyes widen a bit as he picks up Daisuke's goggles that were thrown backwards. _What... this..._ Takeru thought, now remembering that Daisuke threw it away while he just kept it around his room like a relic of the past even though it meant much more. Patamon also notices Takeru elsewhere besides writing and begins to move to his partner.

Daisuke slowly got up from the impact, still in a little pain. At least the sight was not uncommon in this world as any kid at Daisuke's age would try to get into trouble like this, and the appearance of Digimon isn't that much of a big deal because of the barrier between the world's being broken. By now, Nat-chan knows what to expect on this journey and makes a perfect landing with no problems unlike her partner.

At this point, Daisuke took notice of his change of cloths back into the purple-like colours when he immersed into the black mass of water, and while it bothered him a bit, of why the colours changed, Daisuke was thankful for the change again after being in his Digital World clothing for so long. Another noticeable thing is that these cloths felt brand new instead of just rotting somewhere so Daisuke would not release a wave of unpleasant air around him.

"Oh well, at least..." Daisuke said as he stood up, looking towards the horizon of familiarity. "I am back at home! Well, sort of..." Daisuke finished, knowing that he still had to travel by the express train to get back to Odaiba from wherever he is now.

"Wow... there is lots of people and lights around here..." Nat-chan said, looking towards the city full of traffic and people about in their businesses and some Digimon as well.

"Yeah, it sure is good to be back home... now where exactly am I..." Daisuke said as he walked forward with Nat-chan following behind to get a clue of where he is. Seeing nothing in the park, the pair decided to move inside the city where they immediately noticed the entrance to the express train they are going to take. At this point, Daisuke remembered the ticket he was suppose to get, and reached into his pocket. To his surprise, the ticket was right there, and whatever Gennai did to put it there is not normal, but Daisuke could care less as long as it went well for him now. As Daisuke looked to the name of the station, his eyes widened at the name of the place he is. Although wanting to yell out his thought, Daisuke kept it in his head instead because of the attention he would draw. His thought to the name of the place was just one word.

_WHAT!_ Daisuke thought, as he finally understood where he is and why he has to take express train just to get back to Tokyo at least.

As Patamon slowly made his way towards Takeru, a ripping sound caught the attention of them both as blackness fills the sky. Wasting not another second, Takeru quickly picks up his D-3 and D-Terminal then heading outside with Patamon. When blackness fills the sky, it instantly means bad news for them. Although events like these were rare, when they did occur it does pose some sort of trouble if left alone. Heading down onto the last floor, the duo sees a humanoid figure take form and people running away.

"What is it this time?" Takeru said, hoping for an easy battle instead of something that would require time and safe fighting to prevent possible casualties. Although there were no deaths during the last invasion, the news had reported some injuries and now Takeru is determined not to repeat that again. Of course, these Digimon events are nothing compared to Digimon invasion from before, and so the media has grown to accept the fact of Digimon everywhere. The figure fully emerged as a blue flame surrounds the entire body and around the upper body part is chains that are also on fire with metal mask and bottom leg parts.

"Oh my, DeathMeramon, perfect level Digimon" Patamon said, recognising the figure immediately.

"That's just _perfect_ for our situation..." Takeru said, letting out an inward sigh as the flame Digimon took note of the two on the sidelines and prepares to shoot a Heavy Metal Fire ball. Upon seeing this, Takeru immediately used his Digimental of Hope as Patamon changes form in Pegasmon.

With the new form, Pegasmon charges forwards and interrupts DeathMeramon's charged ball. As the flame-man Digimon got up, he pulled out a series of chains and began to swing towards the flying Digimon. Because of Pegasmon's aerial capabilities, the Pegasus escapes the flame-man's Heat Chain attacks easily, but one the problem of the dark vortex in the air still remain and that the advantage of flight would still not be enough for a perfect level Digimon.

Of course, the constant dodging made it hard for Pegasmon to attack with consideration that the area they are in is still the city area. As Pegasmon continued to dodge the attacks, a large noise occurred at the point of the vortex and it exploded. Looking towards the direction, the sky was clearing up and the blackness no longer lingers around. However, with that as a distraction, DeathMeramon threw up a chain and wrapped around Pegasmon's leg, pulling him down into the floor.

Takeru's mouth opened, but the appearance of Red Sun beams assured him a little. As DeathMeramon flinched at the direct attack to the face, and releasing Pegasmon. Miyako appears behind Takeru, taking note of the ugly monster.

"Hey, What's going on here? Another attack? A perfect level one too?" Miyako said, noticing the flame-man get into a rage.

"Yes, but at least you took out that thing he should be no problem..." Takeru said in response, but a large explosion sound would prove otherwise as Pegasmon and Horusmon fly backwards and reverts to Patamon and Hawkmon.

Running up and picking up their partners, Takeru and Miyako saw that DeathMeramon is nowhere finish even after shooting out the Heavy Metal Fire ball at their partner Digimon and got ready for another. Luckily, the flame-man did not hear a thumping sound from his right and when he did turn to look, a Greymon appears and kicks him in the face. With the impact and fall of DeathMeramon, Taichi and Hikari appear along with Tailmon.

"You guys seem to need help, at least the darkness in the sky is gone now," Hikari said, as the DeathMeramon stood up again in rage. Seeing that both Miyako and Takeru's Digimon wore out from the earlier attacks, Hikari uses the Digimental of Light and Tailmon evolves into Nefertimon.

"If what Koushiro said about the black sky influencing normal adults from pulling out their full potential, then perhaps we can win this..." Taichi said, as Greymon and Nefertimon jumped into battle with Mega Flame and Nile Jewelry. The attacks came out to be semi-effective, as DeathMeramon is not reactive to the attacks or unaffected.

Somewhere just behind the battlefield, Koushiro and Iori watched the battle.

"Do you think we should go help them out? We really should while we still can, or else if they devolve as well; we'll lose our chances of winning..." Tentomon said, taking note of how Pegasmon and Horusmon fell with the powerful Heavy Metal Fire attack from earlier.

"I know that, but without any type of communication with Gennai or anyone who knows of this really hinders our understanding of everything around here, this may be my chance to get something from understanding these Digimon that are very different than before..." Koushiro said in response as his small old laptop seem to get an image lock-on with DeathMeramon and analysing the flame-man at the digital level.

"Well, maybe we should just go help if Koushiro is busy" Armadimon said, looking towards the battle as Greymon and Nefertimon barely manages to dodge the Heat Chain whips.

"They should be relatively fine for the time being as I heard that Tailmon with her tail ring does improve her powers, so she should be able to hold off on their own for now. In addition, Greymon at an unknown but probably not too suppressed power is thereto assisting them. Besides, I've got everything just the way I wanted right now. I know you all want to help, but just hold on for a second here..." Koushiro said, looking at how the data of the enemy Digimon flow.

However, Koushiro is not perfect in his assumption as when Greymon got ready to release another Mega Flame that DeathMeramon interrupts with a Heavy Metal Fire attack that shoots the Mega Flame and explodes on Greymon. Falling down, Greymon turns back into Agumon while shortly after Nefertimon falls down reverting to Tailmon.

"This is bad, we're losing..." Taichi said, as Agumon stood up from the great fall.

"If I could evolve into MetalGreymon, then I could probably take him out just like before..." Agumon said, remembering the DeathMeramon from long before and how that one fell to such ease.

"That's impossible for now; too bad the effects of the core only lasted for such a short time..." Taichi said, even he hoped that the powers from Qinglongmon's core would last longer in case of emergencies like this one.

As the four on the battlefield seem to look right on towards death, Takeru stood still, a new determination filling his eyes. Meanwhile, Tentomon and Armadimon seem to fuss over the event of their allies losing while almost interfering with Koushiro.

"Hey! Stop it, I was wrong, so what? I am almost done..." Koushiro said, even though he wanted to help as much as both Digimon along with Iori, the research data he needed was almost complete.

Of course, with a strong stand upfront, Takeru drew the attention of DeathMeramon near as the others watched in fear.

"Hikari, looks like we can't do this with what we have, but there is something else that we can do..." Takeru said, getting to Hikari.

"But the others are here right now..." Hikari said, standing up with Tailmon.

"I know, but we don't seem to have a choice right now..." Takeru said as DeathMeramon now stood before him.

Hikari wanted to go further against the idea, but now that DeathMeramon is at such close proximity to her friend, she would not say anything more about the issue. At least now, it is time to "fight fire with fire."

Using their new Digimentals, Takeru and Hikari evolves Patamon and Tailmon into Stegomon and Lynxmon. The appearance of the two new Digimon got many surprising looks from everyone who was watching the battle. Words were simply not needed to describe the situation as the Fire beat and the Stegosaurus Digimon moved forward with their attacks. Stegomon rushes with Guillotine Wheel and spins in the circular motion to grind up on DeathMeramon's chains while Lynxmon moves in with Wild Nail Rush that effectively send the flame-man backwards. It was only by the surprise appearance of the two new Digimon that seem to surprise DeathMeramon and allowing them to force their strongest attacks to send him back as both Tailmon and Patamon is still weary from the blasts before. Nevertheless, victory goes to the Chosen ones as DeathMeramon disappears through the dark patch.

Of course, by now the four spectators outburst comes forward to question their allies on the new evolutions, or rather why did have them. Because of the four speaking at the same time, neither Hikari nor Takeru knew what to say at first.

"Hey! One at a time please, we can't answer all questions at once!" Takeru said, trying to fend off the clamour of noises from their friends. After getting a chance to talk, Takeru explained that these evolutions are from Digimentals of Courage and Friendship.

"But wait, how did you get them?" Iori asked, still curious to the main reason or purpose as to why the two had them all along.

"It's... a long story. I think I will need to explain it where everyone knows what's going on..." Takeru said, still hiding his innermost feelings about the whole event, especially since it has been a secret for so long and that now it is almost time to tell the whole world.

"That's fine, because I think I have obtained enough data to determine some things right now... we can gather up later while I present my findings..." Koushiro said.

With the conclusion of that battle, the six Chosen quickly withdrew from the area to avoid possible blame and to rest up from such an event in the earlier parts of the day.

Daisuke sat on the seat of the express train with Nat-chan, as the express train moved its way towards Tokyo. Daisuke was in a grumpy mood because of the lack of food since the day started, but also because of the location he was. He reread the location's station in his head.

**Osaka Station.**

Surely, Daisuke is not sure if it is simply a joke that Gennai set up with the stereotypical Osakan people being loud talkers and always joking to fit his personality or it was just a coincidence. However, the gut feeling of Daisuke thinks it is the former and that incites a bit of anger at that thought. Nevertheless, there was nothing the Chosen Child could do except just sleep as the train goes on to his designated location. The trip from Osaka to Tokyo on the express train would be about two and half hours according to the schedule posted. While Daisuke fell asleep from his hunger biting him as well as the maybe-not-so-funny joke from Gennai, Nat-chan looked out the window to see many buildings and wonders pass by. To her, this was a completely new world and some metropolises were particularly attractive. After some long waiting, the train finally reached Tokyo, and when the door opened, Daisuke was still snoring and Nat-chan pushed her two paws into Daisuke's face and rubbed them at shook him awake.

"Whoa! What's going?" Daisuke said as he awoke suddenly.

"We have arrived..." Nat-chan said, as Daisuke got up and quickly exited the train. Finally, Daisuke looked at the city of Tokyo once since his departure, and everything seemed new.

"Aha! I've been waiting for this moment!" Daisuke said, a big smile forming on his face, as he smells the air of Tokyo and steps onto the streets.

"Is where you live?" Nat-chan asked, looking at the busy streets much similar to Osaka.

"Yeah, but my house is still a little bit away. We can walk there no problem though..." Daisuke said, leading the way. At least now, he was in a place where he felt comfortable and not trying to avoid Digimon confrontations or not knowing where he is.

However, that would be false some time later, just before Daisuke and Nat-chan enter Odaiba, another black warp seems to appear overhead and they got ready as an enemy Digimon seems to appear in front of them, almost as if it is guarding the city.

_Digimon here as well? What's going on?_ Daisuke thought as Nat-chan jumped into battle with the Hyougamon that formed. Of course, with the past battles, Daisuke and Nat-chan faced the worst already and Hyougamon went down easy with a few direct hits. However, as the ice ogre is down, a black patch appeared under him and he started to fall in while laughing. During this time, Daisuke's D-3 reacted and he pointed the D-3 at the black patch. The D-3 reacted and shot out a white light that went over the patch as well as the Digimon and turning them into a shroud of black. This shroud then flew right into Daisuke's D-3 at high speed. Afterwards, the D-3 continued to react, and Daisuke looked up to see the dark warp still in effect, so he pointed his reactive D-3 at the vortex and it reacted again. This time, a light with black frame and white body shot out, hitting the centre of the vortex and dispersing it.

Nat-chan saw the process and found it amazing that so many things can happen within just a short moment. Daisuke himself could not comprehend what that was all about, as he looked in his D-3's screen to see that a picture of Hyougamon with the word "**QUARANTINED**" appeared over the picture.

"Daisuke... what's going on?" Nat-chan said, unsure of the recent events.

"I don't know... Digimon appearing here and everything... seems strange to me... who could be doing this? Oh well, right now we should just head to my house..." Daisuke said, continue walking and setting his feet on Odaiba for the first time in a year.

* * *

Now, time obviously passes by quite quickly in real life and certainly demands a lot from us. Even for Writers. What I am getting at is that with the time and events nearing and as a human, I too will be busy. In other words, if I do not update for lets say the next three weeks or so do not fret. I am not dead just dealing with the perils of life.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Well, so this chapter is finally here in the midst of these "hard times". Anyway, until the next two weeks or so passes, I believe updates will not be very fast. However, I am doing what I can, so enjoy and sorry for longer-than-usual wait.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Odaiba Relief**

Bit by bit the memories and mind map of Odaiba came back into Daisuke's head as he walks through the streets with his partner. Although Daisuke does find himself in an awkward situation since it has been a long time since he has been "home." Nevertheless, Daisuke slowly finds his way home with Nat-chan as they pass through all the tantalising smells of the attractive noodles from nearby stores. However, the source of food from before did not require any form of currency since they would always earn it instead of buying it and so the pair is anxious to get to their location and maybe raid the fridge. After all, hanging around Daisuke for a year not only changes someone's personality, but food habits as well. Over the course of the year, Daisuke's noodle craving and fantasy lodge its way into Nat-chan's mind and incite her own craving for the noodles as well, despite not getting a taste of it before.

Of course, after one year would bring time to summer once again and the sun would be up bright and strong in the sky. Again, the relatively darker colour of Daisuke and Nat-chan works against them.

"So long... So hungry..." Nat-chan said, almost feeling faint.

"I know, just a bit more... here, this would be faster," Daisuke said, picking up and carrying his partner through the hot land of the urban area. After all, shoes are better than just normal Digimon feet.

"Is there noodles at your house?" Nat-chan asked, while she lay comfortably in Daisuke's arms.

"Yes... there should be... unless Jun ate them all and didn't bother to buy anymore..." Daisuke replied, turning at another corner.

Of course, without much food and with much craving for food the pair slowly proceeds to their destination. However, on the way something in particular catches Daisuke's eye. While walking past a store just out of the corner of his eyes, Daisuke catches the picture on a newspaper. Turning to take a quick glance, the picture shows two Digimon that are rather new and unfamiliar to them. The newspaper has nothing that hints at vilifying Digimon or the kind, but rather is somewhat of an accolade at the two Digimon that stood up against the destructive forces. Daisuke quickly skims the article, picking up any information that might be beneficial to him. Of course, the highlight would be the darkness appearing up in the skies as these "invasions" came about. One thing that plague Daisuke's mind is where his family and friends would be in the midst of all the chaos. Surely, the dangers are enough for anyone to move, but Daisuke doubt that anyone would move away from small invasions.

_What is going around here? It looks as if this place has become a disaster! Oh well, probably can't get worse with Jun around..._ Daisuke thought as his stomach continued to urge him home to the food.

Still, for Daisuke the world of Odaiba has never been stranger to him. Moving onwards, Daisuke manages to inch closer back home despite the raging sun light from above that continues to burn strongly. Yet, the very thought of food or even seeing his own family again gave Daisuke the determination to push on. At this time, Daisuke also began to wonder why his friends are nowhere insight. Since it is the summer, Daisuke would expect some of his friends to be around outside so that maybe he could talk to them, then maybe leech some food from their closer homes and it will not matter. However, as Daisuke crosses through the most common locations where he and his friends would use to meet-up, nobody is present.

_Strange... I would have expected at least somebody to be out on a nice day like this... Could they have all went away to some trip maybe? Even so, at least somebody should have stayed behind... ah well forget it, I am hungry and I am sure Nat-chan is too. Just a little further..._ Daisuke thought as he turned the final corner to face the destination building.

Without seeing much change, Daisuke continues his way up into the building, trying to remember where exactly his house is. The year away from home is almost like exile and many memories slips away from home. Of course, thoughts and hopes of home fuels Daisuke's will to go on until finally he knew he is in the right place. Standing in front of the door, Daisuke could see that the door is messy with fingerprints, dust, and many other markings. Daisuke knows that only his family would use the door so frequently and without paying attention to its condition that would lead the door into this awful condition. Regardless, Daisuke presses the doorbell and waits. Obviously, nothing happens as the house did not seem to react, and immediately Daisuke understands that only Jun is beyond the door. Instead of ringing the doorbell again, Daisuke began knocking on the door with a hard force. Heavily at that.

Daisuke stands correct to think that only Jun is in the house as it is completely true. Inside the Motomiya residence, young Jun is busy on her computer to interact with either friends or simply online window-shopping. The knocking sound penetrates the walls of the door and into her room. However, Jun would care less about the door, as no one of interest would come at this time. Usually she would be the one knocking on her friends' door instead and the only one ever to knock with such force to her knowledge is Daisuke. Working away at her computer, the knocking sounds continue and do not cease.

Daisuke stops the knocking for a short time. He knows that Jun is purposely ignoring the knocks, and there is nothing he could do except nearly breaking the door down to get her attention. From the constant knocking sounds, Nat-chan wakes up from the short slumber in Daisuke's arm and jumps off.

"Daisuke? What's going on? Is this your house?" She asked, looking at the dirty door compared to the neighbouring clean doors.

"Yes it is, but I know Jun is in there, that's why I am going to have to use full force..." Daisuke replied, lifting his foot up and bringing it back to ready the kick.

Inside the house, Jun continues her business thinking that the knocking is over, but when a big impact sound roars across the house, Jun stops. Again, the impacting sound pierces through the house, as Jun tries to filter the sound. The kicking sound impact continues to go through the house, and very soon incites Jun's anger from the incessant sound. Getting up, Jun slowly went to the door with her anger building up with each step. Surely, the noise is annoying, but forcing her to give in and open the door is another matter.

"The only other person in this world to force me out of my room is Daisuke; whoever this is better have a good explanation..." Jun said angrily under her breath as she unlocks the door with one final bang sound that nearly made her jump. Regaining herself, Jun continues to work on the door and a way to knockout the noisy "intruder"

Finally, the lock on the door is broken, and the barrier between the Motomiya siblings falls. Before speaking aloud, Daisuke's appearance cast away all of the anguish in Jun's heart and froze her in place. Silence fills the air as Jun looks to the brother who she thought to be dead. Daisuke looks back, recognising the hardly noticeable change in his sister and slowly a smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

Nat-chan watches the scene from the side as her partner seems to have his unsuspecting sister's attention away. Having understanding of the entire family system of things from Daisuke, Nat-chan slips into the house while leaving Daisuke for the family moment.

Of course, before Daisuke is able to speak, Jun pulls him into a deep embrace.

Meanwhile, the second generation of the Chosen sits together in council to discuss plans for the future of Odaiba. By now the gravity of the situation of random Digimon entering into their world is getting problematic, and without proper planning the situation would be out of control. At the same time, the children are also trying to find out why or who would be behind the invasions as well as trying to get information from somebody like Gennai or even Qinglongmon. However, since neither has any replies to offer the Chosen are left on their own to discover and find out about the situation.

The atmosphere around the room of Ken's room has relatively calm air along with welcoming voices. After all, with the problematic conditions, the numbers to fight against the invading Digimon are small. Despite that, Takeru is a little nervous in telling the story. With the appearance of Lynxmon and Stegomon at the same time in front of the others, and along with someone sneaking a picture into a small section of the newspaper did not help his situation. After having the two new armour evolutions appear, everyone is only more eager to know about the truth behind them. Hikari stays by Takeru to try to release some tension present in Takeru, knowing that this would liberate her friend from unnecessary burden. Still, Takeru is nervous just as anybody would be with public speaking with many people in close proximity. Of course, for Takeru this is more like a confession even though the audience would just be his peers. Takeru knew he has to go through with this, and not saying anything would only eat him up from the inside. Although Takeru knows perfectly well that he is capable of doing this, the very thought of talking about this even made him uneasy.

The execution of the task would be the main question at this point. At least someone in the group did Takeru a favour by asking him about it instead of him starting the conversation. With a strange silence that seems to be filling the room, Miyako starts up with a simple statement:

"I remember taking a look at the newspaper this morning, and one article said something about these two new Digimon…" She said, lifting out a picture of the article with the two Digimon from her pocket.

"It's from the battle earlier," Iori said in response, knowing about the event.

The response got the attention of Ken and Miyako as they wonder what is going on. Takeru could feel the highlight event coming now that somebody mentions the two Digimon. Hikari looks over to Takeru in concern; perhaps they might have been an easier way to get through this event.

"Those two are Lynxmon and Stegomon, the evolution forms of Tailmon and Patamon with the Digimentals of Courage and Friendship," Iori explained as a sudden shift of mood come about in the air.

"And what's this all about?" Ken asked, now with everybody facing in Takeru and Hikari's direction.

In order to reestablish a calmer mood, Takeru releases a short laughter before replying. "Something that I tell you all… now, I am sorry for keeping this all this time…" Takeru said, before beginning.

Slowly but surely, the story resurfaces in Takeru's mind as he speaks out the words of the hidden truth, flowing throughout the room. Nobody seems to move. Or want to move for that matter. The story simply held in much that it did take some time for everyone present to understand and digest. For Takeru, the feeling of liberation from self-guilt refreshes him. As each sentence that go by seem to get stronger and more relief pouring over him. Hikari sat down nearby Takeru for moral support, but that no longer is necessary. Finally, the story ends as Takeru wraps up with the conclusion along with the appearance of the two new Digimon. Now the only thing to worry about is the reactions of the others as they continue to interpret and process the story through their minds. Even though the wait seems to be unnerving, Takeru still stood calmly, whatever happens just happens. After all, the content of the story is not in his control.

In the Motomiya residence, Daisuke proceeds to eat his second large bowl of noodles greedily. Perhaps not being able to eat his favourite food made Daisuke extra hungry. It did not matter; Daisuke manages to give a quick and brief summary of his life to Jun and introducing his new partner as well. Of course, because of the events that occur in Daisuke's life, Jun hardly even consider it true. Nevertheless, for Jun, there is nothing better than seeing her family member, and despite the many arguments and rough times, Jun did enjoy Daisuke in the house. Although she would now have some regrets, as to how Daisuke appears right now. Of course, Daisuke is perfectly cognizant of this situation and would do something about it soon. First, the hair is an obvious factor, but other things include the stinking smell filling the air from Daisuke and ugliest finger nails ever. Surely, it is only because Daisuke went to Jun that she is able to recognise him.

For Nat-chan, she struggles to get a grasp on how to eat noodles, as she tries various methods on picking up the "wiggly lines" and eating them. At least now, she knows what exactly noodles are and why they taste good.

"I think you're overdue for a change, Daisuke..." Jun said, looking towards the horrific shape of Daisuke right now.

"Yes, I know... just let me finish and I'll go change up a little..." Daisuke replied.

After the full meal, Daisuke and Nat-chan opens the door to Daisuke's room and enters to see the dust fly. Daisuke stands at the entrance of his room, not moving at all because of the amount of dust around. Surely he would have expect his nosy family to at least take a peek or two every once in awhile into his room, but no. Instead, a year's worth of dust gathers in the room and it is generally a mess in its own sort of way.

"Oh well, I'll clean this place up later..." Daisuke said, walking over to his bed and falling down. At the same time, Daisuke releases a big sigh of relief of an actually bed. Nothing could be more comforting for Daisuke now, to be able to lay down on his own bed after one tiring year made him especially grateful for his own bed.

Seeing Daisuke's relaxed state, Nat-chan jumps up onto the bed and lays down for rest as well. The train ride has been tiring and now rest is finally here.

A reminder comes to Daisuke's mind when he starts feeling itchy. Now that he is finally at home, he knew he has one thing to do: take a long wash in actual bath water along with soap! After all, in the Digital World, Daisuke's attempts at washing himself are clearly futile without soap. Getting up quietly to not wake his partner, Daisuke searches around his room for any new clothes and resisting the urge to sneeze or cough because of flying dust. For some strange reason, the dust did not bother Nat-chan at all, which is a surprise to Daisuke, as the dust tends to stick on fur.

Takeru and Hikari slowly walk through the streets of Odaiba, with the highlight of their day behind their backs. At least for the renewed Takeru anyway. The whole event went through better than either of them has in mind. The story seems to amaze everyone, and it did seem like that Iori, Miyako and Ken is on the urge of pushing on Takeru with harsh reproach. However, what the three said in response would prove the opposite. True enough that Miyako just have to make an outburst at the crashing conclusion of the story, but at least everyone on this team knows. The story may be hard to accept, but it is the truth and the past. Again, Takeru has no control over that situation. The only remark that even came close to a censure is about how Takeru must be acting more like Yamato in a joking kind of way from Miyako. With the hidden truth out, everyone seem to agree on a common goal: Find the lost member who should be around_ somewhere_. Although Ken agree to it half his consciously, since he would know exactly how it feels to be in a position like the one in the story, and that someone like his best friend to suffer that is a big shock.

"That went out really well... although, I am not sure how everyone thinks now," Takeru said, still a little worried since the others did not really say much.

"I am sure they understood. Because it is not your fault nor were you in control of that situation... maybe you just worried a bit too much" Hikari replied, giving light on the topic with a smile.

Takeru responded with his own smile and response, but there was just one little thing that continued to linger in his head. "Well, looks like you guys are right... maybe I just pulled a Yamato all that time... haha, it must have rubbed off from him..."

"It must be harder on him because of his friendship with Daisuke, but we're trying our best to comfort him." Hikari said.

"Yeah... Anyway, now that we have the support of our friends, this task should be easier and..." Takeru trailed off as he had his hand in his pocket and picked out something from way earlier. Daisuke's goggles.

"Hey, those are..." Hikari said, taking note of the goggles.

"It dropped earlier in my room, I almost forgot about it... but anyway, I do know that he might be out there somewhere," Takeru said in response, being hopeful of the situation.

At that same moment, a beep became apparent, as the two look to their D-Terminals to receive a message from Koushiro regarding the dark portals.

For the rest of that day, the Chosen around Odaiba retires for the day to into resting and getting ready for the next possible invasion. For the Motomiyas however, they proceed to fix up Daisuke's appearance after seeing the boy. After a cleaning through water, nails cut, and finally reducing the large mass of hair. Everything seems back in order for that one happy family as things are almost back to normal. To replace his worn-out clothing, Daisuke puts on another set of clothes much like his previous forms. Light-blue T-shirt, dark-blue vest, lighter brown shorts and complete with the same old orange-coloured shoes.

At last, now in the solitude of his own room, also having gone through a renewal, Daisuke continues to adapt back into his city-life. Looking out the window, Daisuke could feel relief continue to wash over him. Many things did happen today, especially seeing his entire family welcoming him home. However, now would not be the time to celebrate, as there is a mystery to solve. First thing though, Daisuke would have to reintroduce himself to his friends, and he knew exactly who to contact first. Given Daisuke's situation, Ken would be his first choice. Since it is now late, Daisuke would refrain from calling until early next morning.

Before turning in for the night, Daisuke sees his D-Terminal that has sat there since his absence. At the same time, he also remembers his old D-3. Moving near the desk area, Daisuke checks the garbage. To his surprise, his old D-3 is now gone even though no one has even come close to entering the room for the past year.

_Where did it go?_ Daisuke thought, not seeing the D-3 anywhere. Standing up, Daisuke's attention shifts to his D-Terminal instead. Picking it up and opening it, he took note of the e-mails that are present. Several from his other Chosen friends around the group, but most are from Mimi. The ones that Mimi sent have titles in either worry or question, and Wallace has a large amount of e-mails as well. _Nobody ever checks in my room, and so everybody just keep sending me all these... wait, hold on..._

Daisuke checks the latest e-mail received on the D-Terminal, which is dated to present day few hours ago. From the look of the title Mysterious Digimon Invasion Phenomenon, Daisuke could obviously figure out that his friends have already started to counter the invaders.

Reading the e-mail, Daisuke could already see that Koushiro has figure out some thing on the dark warps. The e-mail is to those who were not at the meeting earlier. Currently, the basic theory by the mind of Koushiro is that the dark portals act similar to Dark Towers. Very simply, the invading Digimon is not anymore powerful than normal Digimon, but rather because the warp is acting like a dark portal that it hinders normal evolution Digimon from drawing out their full power. With that said, evolution naturally works, but the power is almost no different from that of a child form with a tiny boost. When the dark portal disperses because of normal attack, the influence over that area would subside and normal Digimon would have no trouble with the average adult invading Digimon. Of course, this makes clear the fact that the dark warps do not affect armour evolution, as digimentals are catalyst to evolution in the ancient times. , the question remains on why, how, what or who is causing the presence of the dark energies appearing.

_So that's what has been happening lately... hmm, I wonder why that law did not apply to Nat-chan as that weird Digimon went down in two hits..._ Daisuke thought, remembering how that Hyougamon went down. At the same, unaware of the dark mass that is appearing nearby from the shadows.

"Daisuke, what are you doing?" Nat-chan asked from the shadows of the poorly lit room. This made Daisuke jump in surprise, he thought that Nat-chan is asleep for the night, but here she is fully awake.

"Oh... I am just checking out some of my old stuff from a year ago, especially these e-mails..." Daisuke said in response.

"E-mails, oh, the D-Turner?" Can I see too?" Nat-chan asked, excited by the technology of this world.

"Yeah, and it's a D-Terminal" Daisuke replied, and then jumping into bed while going through the long list of e-mails.

Of course, the pair skips the one-word or small e-mails, as those are the "where are you?" type of e-mails. Checking the ones near the beginning of Daisuke's disappearance, there is an apology from Takeru of some sort. Not very interesting e-mails, except the occasional serious ones from either Mimi or Wallace asking or theorising about Nat-chan. Of course, those e-mails seem funny because of what they did not know.

"Well, that's about it... about time to sleep..." Daisuke said, about closing his D-Terminal.

Nat-chan just let off a yawn and lay down next to Daisuke falling asleep fast. Of course, Nat-chan just hog up half the space in that area. Because of this, Daisuke decides to hold onto Nat-chan, as there is no way to move her elsewhere quietly without causing a catastrophe.

Near the break of dawn at Tamachi, Ken is about to wake up from his dream, but something keep him from doing so.

Inside the dream, Ken is speaking to Osamu in a peaceful environment.

"It's really you..." Ken said, seeing his brother standing there in peace.

"Yes... however, I really won't bother you in your dreams unless something is urgent," Osamu replied, not moving at all to the small gust blowing across the sunny grass area.

"What... do you mean?" Ken asked in response.

"Ken there is someone out there who needs your help to renew things, make sure you give him the support he needs. It will help you and your friends in saving the world..." Osamu explained. At the same time, a notorious sound echoes into the area.

"I don't understand... what's going on? Who do I help?" Ken asked, unsure of the situation. At the same time, the whole world around them did seem to fade away along with Osamu.

"I am sorry, but I can't stay any longer. You must figure out the rest for yourself, go now!" Osamu said, disappearing in a flash of light that wakes up Ken into his room.

It turns out that the notorious sound from earlier happens to be a phone ringing in his room. Minomon also awakes to the noise as Ken picks up the phone to answer.

"Hello..." Ken says, almost in a worn-out voice.

"Hey Ken! How are you?" Came the effervescent voice from the other end.

Without having second thought, Ken completely woke up as his eyes shot open. The voice is excessively familiar and he knew who it is.

"Daisuke..." Ken said, giving recognition to the voice.

* * *

With consideration to the time of year in real life, the chapter is set to be more of a relaxing and relief chapter for the characters just before the next part builds up. Anyway, any comments are appreciated to how this piece came through, and happy holidays to those who are resting!


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Oh well, better late than never… Anyway, with such a lack of time, nothing can much can be processed. Nevertheless, the time away did me some good in gathering more ideas, but that still probably will not increase the update speed, sorry!

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Changing World**

Ken could almost drop the phone in surprise. After all, his best friend who disappears without a trace for one year finally returns on this day right after hearing the story of truth yesterday is almost too much for Ken to handle. Nevertheless, Daisuke continued to speak in his happy tone of voice.

"Hi Ken...? Are you there?" Daisuke's voice continues on, breaking the silence.

"Yes... but I just want to ask..." Ken manages to say before being cut in by Daisuke.

"I know, you have questions, but save it for when we meet in person. After all, I have some questions of my own I want to ask you. Are you still living in your old place, I can come over in a short while" Daisuke said, having in mind to take Jun's bike surreptitiously.

_Help? Am I supposed to help Daisuke as I heard in my dream?_ Ken thought, as he gave his reply. "Yeah, alright, I guess I will see you soon"

Having finished the phone call, Ken puts down the receiver and starts to ponder about what is going to happen next. Surely, the recent events of dark portals appearing are tiring, and now Daisuke almost appears out of nowhere. Still, perhaps for Ken he would find something out from Daisuke and that seeing his best friend after such a long time would be good too. At this time, Minomon slowly comes up to his pondering partner and asks his question.

"Ken? Is something the matter?" The pinecone Digimon asked.

"No, not exactly. But it does look like that Daisuke shows up again, kind of strange too..." Ken replied, not doubting his friend but rather still recovering from the sudden call from Daisuke.

"Really? That means we'll get to see Chibimon again as well!" Minomon cheered, as Ken left the room to the bathroom to prepare himself after the long night of sleep.

After putting down the receiver, Daisuke slowly walks out of the house and very quickly goes to where Jun's bike would be. It is not as if that Jun ever uses the bike anyway, as Daisuke brushes off all the dust while Nat-Chan finds the expedient basket on the front of the bike. Indeed this would be a fun experience for the Digimon.

"Hey Daisuke, what are you doing?" Asked the voice of Jun just as Daisuke was about to run off.

Turning around to confirm his failure at stealing the bike in secret, Daisuke immediately made final efforts to escape. "Uhh, I am just borrowing your bike for a short while, and you can't so no, so bye now!" Daisuke quickly said and rushed off with the bike while Jun explodes with indignation.

"Daisuke! You're really no better than before!" She called, finding her brother's static personality unpleasant. However, it is not as if that she could blame Daisuke for everything after having a tiny idea of what is going on.

In the area nearby, Iori and Miyako prepare their next action for the area of Odaiba. Hikari and Takeru send them e-mails a little while ago on yet another strange force, only now it seems to be more intense. Even though the time is only morning time, the chosen would still have to keep up with what is happening in this situation.

"Looks like they may need our help this time, I wanted to stay home..." Miyako said, still dreaming that she would at least have a little time to eat an early desert before heading out.

"Well, this is our job for now until we figure out what's going on anyway... besides..." Iori manage to say before catching a glimpse of something rather familiar at the corner of his eye and turn to face in that direction. The object just passes by with high speed that Iori barely got a look, but the object just look very familiar.

_What was that? Could it be...?_ Iori thought as he tries to process the image of the blur that just pass by.

Miyako did not take note of Iori's fade in speech because of her own absent-mind world thinking about deserts as she slowly came back into reality.

"Anyway, we should get going to help them, they seem like they really needed help" Iori finished, heading in the direction that Hikari and Takeru pointed out.

"Hmm? Is something wrong Iori?" Miyako asked, having caught the sudden change of tone.

"Nothing, I'm just a little worried about those two if they called for both of us..." Iori replied as he kept walking with Miyako following.

Meanwhile, Daisuke and Nat-chan arrives in front of Ken's house, while setting down the bike somewhere and start to walk towards the house. Only he did not need to do so as Ken's voice calls out to Daisuke from behind.

"Even with all that time passed, I can still tell you from a crowd of one million..." Said Ken, smiling as Daisuke turns around to see his friend after such a long time.

"Hey Ken! It has been a long time now! Hey! You haven't changed a bit!" Daisuke said, noting that Ken's personality is pretty much the same as well as his tone of voice.

"I could say the same for you; your reaction was expected..." Ken said, smiling again at his unchanged friend. "Anyway, where is Chibimon right now?"

Daisuke's smile slowly disperses, as he starts to hesitate in telling a story this early. "Well, a bunch of things happened, I guess I could tell you later..." Daisuke said, as Nat-chan appears on his head.

"Hi! You must be Ken, and that is Wormmon!" Nat-chan greeted.

Ken backs off at the sudden appearance of the black cat Digimon, where did this Digimon come from out of nowhere? Ken is completely not in the state for such a surprise, and neither is the Baby form of Wormmon.

"Daisuke... what exactly..." Ken said, and then Daisuke cutting in.

"All right, let's go inside your house and talk for a bit, lots have happened... I suppose you will need to know. Besides, I am hungry..." Daisuke said, trying to avert the sensitive topic at hand for the moment.

With food and necessities present, Daisuke began his long "ordeal" starting from the warped dimension with that visit in America, and moving on until present time for his friend. Surely all the emotions the story involves is almost impossible for Ken to comprehend, certainly the story seems just like a horror movie of some sort. Sure thing that he did know about everything up until V-mon's permanent disappearance, but the horrors that follow after seem to be scary.

Meanwhile, further away Takeru stays down on one knee and continues to take in heavy breathes. "What is going on?" He said, as fear flow through his body. Hikari sat down somewhere nearby in weakness, certainly the force they are up against is completely out of their reach.

"Takeru, you think we can retreat?" Hikari asked weakly as the two continues to languish in their weak state with Patamon and Tailmon down on the floor next to them.

"I don't know... this is really intense..." Takeru said through his own exhaustion.

Suddenly, as the two got ready to stand up again with their Digimon, a pillar of darkness fell down on them, and fear came in and shut down their consciousness.

"Looks like you have it hard; around here in Odaiba we only see those dark energies once in awhile... Now, do you need any help?" Ken said, taking note of Daisuke's situation from before in the Digital World.

"Hmm? Well yeah, I just…." Daisuke trails off, feeling something unnerving.

"Daisuke? What is it?" Ken asked, as Daisuke suddenly stopped talking and look towards a certain direction.

"I feel this sudden coldness... I think something is not right here..." Daisuke said in response.

"Yes... I feel it too, something's coming!" Minomon said, sensing something in the same direction.

While the silence is present, a knocking on Ken's door almost made everyone jump.

"Ken, one of your friends is here to see you, and it looks pretty urgent as well" Came out the voice of Ken's mother from the other side of the room.

Immediately the two boys stand up and head out the door. Indeed something is happening and whatever it is cannot be good.

"Looks like you were right... but I wonder what's going on..." Ken said, as they reach the door to see Iori completely out of breathe supposedly from running.

"Iori! What happened?" Ken said, seeing Iori's condition.

"Takeru and Hikari! They're..."

* * *

Yeah all right, I will leave it here for now and hopefully get back on track with the next chapter and all.


	9. Chapter 8

* * *

**Chapter 8: Undivided Friendships**

Takeru manages to get up from his unconsciousness, and looking around there is nothing but vast amounts of darkness. He could even feel some breeze by his head since his hat went missing after coming into this place. The area seems to be familiar with all the buildings and trees around, but the difference is that the area is mostly in a dark shade.

_Where am I?_ Takeru thinks to himself as his eyes slowly adjust to the darkness. Looking up, he could see that the sky is also in the cover of this dark blanket, whatever it is. Complete strangeness would be perfect to describe this place, as Takeru is unsure if this is his own world or the darkness world.

Stepping forward, he calls out to see if any of his friends would be nearby as he did wake up in the street of this area.

"Hikari! Patamon! Where are you guys?" Takeru shouts, hoping to get a response. The silence gives its response to Takeru, but a slight sound in the area changes the answer.

Running over to small rubble and uncovering it, Takeru meets up with a struggling Tailmon, who seems to have made it into the dark area unscathed.

"Takeru! Where is Hikari?" The Digimon asked, rising into the clear view of the area.

"I don't know, I just got up from there, but if you're here, I am sure Hikari and Patamon might be nearby as well." Takeru responds.

"Ok, we'll go look for them, perhaps they are over there?" Tailmon inquires, pointing behind Takeru to a building that did not seem natural in the urban environment.

Without much more talk, the two rushes into the building and there it seem to be an endless stairway up until the top of the tower. The stairway is in a circular shape attaching to the square-shaped room. The building inside is completely white with a slight cool temperature along with stairs. Nevertheless, Takeru and Tailmon continue to walk up the area in hopes to find out something about this area. After about twenty minutes of running up the stairs, Takeru could already feel a bit of tiredness creeping onto him.

"Phew! It certainly is harder going up stairs than running a straight course..." Takeru huffed, slowing down his pace.

"This place looks strange... but I think I can sense that Hikari is nearby..." Tailmon says looking around at the walls and area just to be sure this place is not a trap that repeats the stairway.

Continuing their course for few minutes, Tailmon stops after passing through one point while Takeru hears a small voice.

"Takeru! Over here!" The voice calls.

Looking over at one part of the wall, a small opening that periodically appears on the stairway, Takeru looks through this window.

"Hikari! Are you all right?" Takeru asks through the gap.

"Yes, and Patamon is here with me, but what is this place? All the darkness..." Hikari trails off, feeling uneasy at the location.

"I don't know, it looks like that dark world again... but I can't be sure... listen, I have Tailmon here with me. How exactly does the building look on your side over there?" Takeru says, as Tailmon slips by and squeezes through the small opening.

"Hey! I wanna do that too!" Said another voice and soon Patamon squeezed through the opening back into Takeru's place.

"Well, at least our partners are back in place, but it looks like just an endless stairway here, why do you ask?" Hikari responds.

"Same, endless stairway here... but it seems to get colder as we get up this tower. Anyway, I guess we'll just go on with these stairs for now until the top and see if we can meet there..." Takeru instructed.

"Right, hopefully we can find a way out." Hikari responded as the pair went their way up the stairways.

_Another stairway on the other side huh... this is a strange building, whatever it is certainly is not of our world..._ Takeru thought as he and his partner continues to stay alert just in case if there would be anything worthy of note.

After another few minutes of "struggling" up the stairs, the temperature seems to be getting colder. Perhaps the altitude has the cold effect on the temperature, but the blanket of darkness also explains the cold.

After what seems to be impossible for another five minutes of dead silence except the sound of stepping on the stairs, Takeru and Hikari reaches the top, and at last, they regrouped.

"Phew! I'd thought we'd all die in that maze type of building!" Patamon said, setting down to rest from all the flapping of his wings.

"For sure, at least we're all alive" Tailmon assured.

"So... where are we right now? We're at the top, and there doesn't seem to be anything here..." Takeru noted, looking around the area that seems to be covered by some sort of dome, also made of the dark blanket covering the outside of the building.

After observing for a while, the four began to move forward a little, and just as they step onto the middle, a piercing laugh strike fear into all four of them.

Iori took an awhile to catch his breathe from running to Ken's house. Ken let his friend relax before speaking, as Upamon in Iori's hand seem to take notice of someone. Daisuke withdrew for a while, it seems like it would be best to save Iori from a sudden appearance and wait for him to explain first.

"Well, are you ready to talk?" Ken asked in a nervous, yet assuring voice.

"Yeah... you see when Hikari and Takeru sent Miyako and I e-mails for help, it seemed like they were having a serious trouble. We went to their area to check out whatever is wrong, but... when we got there, this barrier blocked us out. We could see that Hikari and Takeru were on the other side, but they were trapped, and then that is when what seems to be a big pillar of darkness descended into the area. It might be dangerous, so I came here to ask your help..." Iori explained in his calmed down state.

"So they're in trouble huh... we certainly can't ignore this. All we have to do is stay calm..." Ken assured, as he got ready to go out.

"But wait! The dark pillar that is in the area seems to be impenetrable; it is like there is a wall there that is resistant to attacks.

"We'll just have to think of something, but if Takeru and Hikari are in danger right now, they probably need our help..." Ken said a getting a little nervous at the situation.

Upamon jumped up, making note aloud about what he saw earlier. "But wait, who is that behind you, Ken?"

Ken stopped, and slowly moved out of the way in Iori's vision as he and his Digimon looked onto the familiar figure. Iori's eyes widened at the sight and almost became petrified. It is almost as if he is looking at someone dead that suddenly rise from the dead.

Daisuke raises his hand in greetings to the strange situation instead of saying nothing, as they have a task. "Relax; it's only me Iori..."

"But how...? Since whe-" Iori slowly processes out as Daisuke began to speak again.

"We'll have to explain later, perhaps it may be more beneficial to us if you explain more about your situation right now, Iori" Daisuke finishes and closes the door of Ken's house and gives Iori the gesture to lead the way.

As the three walk on their way through the park to their destination, Iori begins by telling of Miyako's whereabouts.

"After the dark pillar came down, both Miyako and I wanted to go ask for your help, but another dark warp appears in the sky. We were expecting a fight of some sort when a blast came in and destroyed both the warp and the emerging Digimon," Iori explains, taking a breath.

"Who was it that appeared?" Ken inquired.

"A Digimon by the name of Ophanimon, she claimed to be a servant of Qinglongmon sent to this world to investigate a strange cause. Miyako says she will follow her to find out more while I come over to get your help. It really could not be helped; I even tried to stop her since it would most likely be nothing to worry about... Anyway, that's the situation for now; can I just ask a simple question Daisuke?" Iori said, looking over to the new Daisuke.

"Hmm? What is it?" Daisuke replies dumbly as he always would for Iori.

"How did you end up with your current partner?" Iori asked, looking over at the seemingly asleep BlackTailmon resting on Daisuke's head.

"Oh, this is what happens next day after V-mon disappeared, I was transported to that world of darkness that everyone keeps talking about, where I wandered into a cave and when I removed the Digimental of Darkness from the seal, she appeared. There is another story relating to this, but her name is 'Nat-chan' by the way. Anymore after this will be too much to explain, so we'll leave it here," Daisuke explains in a rather quick and almost impossible to understand voice.

"The Digimental of Darkness?" Iori said, unsure about what that could mean.

"Relax, it's got no use right now, so don't worry about it... say, is that the place?" Daisuke said, pointing forward to black mass that seems to reach into the sky.

"Yes, let's go there now!" Iori replied.

As the three continues on the road to their destination, a certain rustling in the nearby bushes stops them. Looking around the area, they could not see if anyone would be there right now, and the rustling did not ring out again, so the group went on with their mission. However, an intense rustling nearby again stops the group to search the area more carefully this time.

"Could it be some sort of spy in the area?" Ken said, searching the upper branches for any possible enemies.

"Maybe, it did follow us here, so stay alert..." Iori informed, digging into a bush when a flash of colours zips by in the corner of his eyes.

Hikari and Takeru turn around to their backs along with their Digimon; there they see a rather familiar figure in a different form. Total fear strikes Takeru while Hikari tries to stand still and not shake too much.

The coldness seems to intensify as Devimon's face show up again, but in his ice form. "I live once more..." declared the fallen angel Digimon as his cold voice seems to pierce the chosen children.

"You! How did you survive?" Takeru shot directly at the ice Digimon.

"How? That is of no concern to you... what matters are that you and your friend surrender your power..." IceDevimon replies in his calm and icy voice.

"You still think you could defeat me? I am not the same as I was back then..." Takeru warned, getting serious and containing his anger as memories of Angemon disappearing returns to him.

"Takeru..." Hikari said, looking over to her friend, worried at why Takeru would be so forceful and angry over such an enemy.

"I know him; he's way back from our first adventure at File Island... I did sacrifice myself that time to defeat him... but..." Patamon said, also remembering the first fight with Devimon.

"We'll just have to defeat him again now I suppose..." Tailmon said standing up to the Ice beast that now appears in front of the four in full form.

"I guess you just want to fight... well, that's fine with me... but know that I am not the same either, little boy..." IceDevimon mocked, smiling at Takeru.

At that moment, Takeru could feel the anger inside himself explode with rage. Taking out his D-3, Patamon knew the fight starts here. Hikari follows along with Tailmon; certainly, they will not sit around with just Takeru fighting the battle alone.

"Hello Iori!" Miyako shouted as she ran out of the bushes in front of Iori to scare him. Iori tips over on the ground in fright, but quickly regains himself.

"Miyako! This is not the time to be joking around; Hikari and Takeru are in trouble! Didn't you say you were chasing after that Ophanimon? What happened there?" Iori asked.

"Oh, that? I lost her... so sorry!" Miyako joked, still not taking the situation seriously.

"Looks like we can just leave her here if she's not serious about this..." Daisuke said, looking towards the black mass covering a whole section of the city from this point of view.

Miyako turns around to the direction of Daisuke, but does not realise it is him yet; instead, she continues to ramble on. "Huh? What are you saying? I tried my best in keeping up with her..." Miyako complained, and then noticed exactly the person in front of her.

Stopping for a moment of silence, she continues to look to Daisuke's direction, but he did not look back at her and only at the black mass. When Daisuke finally looks in her direction, Miyako could only stare in disbelief and then jump back in surprise.

"Huh? When did we recruit a Daisuke-clone?" Miyako processed out very slowly, pointing at Daisuke, still in a state of surprise.

"Talk later, Hikari and Takeru is in danger... and I am no clone..." Daisuke said in response, walking forward with Iori and Ken.

Miyako stood there for a few seconds to comprehend what just happened. She simply could not believe it, only yesterday did everyone seem to know about how he disappeared. Nevertheless, Miyako takes a deep breath and runs after the group that has gone ahead now. Although Miyako continues on pushing questions on Daisuke, but he merely gave a one-word response or just ignored them, they were too close to their destination to stop now.

Arriving at the site of the darkness, they examine the darkness covering the town. Beyond the black sheet, they would see just the normal area, except it is void of anyone.

"This is no use, the wall is thick, and it feels just like the Dark Towers I created long ago..." Ken states, feeling the dark energies flowing out from the sheet.

Daisuke looks at the energy, although it is certainly nothing like the ones up in the sky, something about the energy feels familiar to him. Holding up one hand, he touches the surface of the sheet. Immediately a melting reaction seems to take place, as the black sheet seems to come out in a liquid that starts to cover Daisuke's hand.

The liquid also seems to be a type of goo that sticks, as Daisuke could not pull his hand away from the wall, and the liquid seems to be running through his arm and covering it with the black substance.

"Daisuke! What is that...?" Ken shouted, seeing the blackness covering Daisuke, and soon covering part of his head and face. While Miyako and Iori stands nearby in amazement at such a reaction.

Without further thought, Daisuke reaches for his Digivice with his free hand and waves it right in front of the "melting point", and this soon dissipates the black substance on Daisuke as well as opening an entrance in front of everyone.

More surprise looks appear on the face of Ken, Miyako and Iori as Daisuke open their path into the black mass.

"How did you do that?" Miyako asked, half-amazed and half-scared at such an event.

"It's just how my new D-3 works for some reason, since we're given entry now, let's go rescue our friends before I explain so I won't have to explain it over and over again..." Daisuke said, entering the dark block with his friends somewhat reluctant to follow. Sure, it seemed awesome to have Daisuke do all this and stay stoic in the midst of it all, but to a certain degree, it looks scary.

Inside, the group inspects the area for any possible innocents that may need rescuing, but seeing no one--not even hostile Digimon, they continue on their way forward into the urban environment.

After proceeding forward a bit, Daisuke notices something on the ground, rushing towards it, he picks it up and clearly, he immediately notices the object.

"What is it?" Miyako asked from behind.

"Are we too late?" Daisuke questions as he holds onto Takeru's hat.

"Maybe not, look over there..." Iori points, the direction of where an unusual building stands with the top in a dense mass of darkness.

"That's probably where Hikari and Takeru are, since they would never leave stuff like this behind, we've got to hurry!" Ken urged his friends as they all agreed and ran towards the tower.

Up at the top where the dome is, IceDevimon effortlessly knocks away both Nefertimon and Pegasmon with his bare hands, also laughing the process.

"Is this your best? It looks like you have gotten weaker than before! Looks like you really have changed!" IceDevimon mocked, laughing again.

"Be quiet! I will beat you! Pegasmon, we can do this..." Takeru said through his anger.

Pegasmon and Nefertimon teams up to perform Sanctuary Bind on the ice devil, but IceDevimon remains static during the process, and just when the two armour Digimon tries to attack, he fires off Zero Freeze beams from his eyes that freezes parts of both armour Digimon and cause them to fall to the ground.

"Futile effort, maybe you should have never bothered!" IceDevimon mocked again, which gave Takeru all the reason to be angrier as he gritted his teeth at the laughing monster.

"Go... We'll defeat this guy again like we did first time around..." Takeru commands, hoping that Pegasmon could still fight.

"Leave it to me..." Pegasmon agrees, flying up once more and shooting Silver Blaze beam at the ice devil. However, IceDevimon counters with Frost Claws that dissipates the beam and strikes right at Pegasmon.

With a large impact, Pegasmon falls down on the ground, changing back into Patamon. Takeru rushes up to his partner and picks him up in concern.

Nefertimon rises up and sneaks around to the back of IceDevimon, who is laughing at Takeru and did not notice her. Firing a Rosetta stone, the stone hits IceDevimon straight on, causing some pain.

With the pain, IceDevimon launches off Icy Shower icicles from his wings that flies all over the place, just missing Takeru but enough of a blast to separate the two. Even more of an impact is the launch of a larger icicle that smashes Nefertimon back into Tailmon, as Hikari catches the falling cat Digimon.

"It's impossible, how is he so powerful for an adult..." Takeru muttered, seeing IceDevimon raise his hands in happiness.

"Nothing is impossible. It is simple, I have gone through the worst of the worst in the coldest places ever in the Digital World after being reborn, and my data has accumulated over time since you just slacked off somewhere else... I am no normal adult level Digimon you see..." IceDevimon explained and then formed a sadistic smile, turning to Patamon and picking the small Digimon up. "Now, let's have a little fun, shall we?"

Increasing the pressure on his fingers, Patamon yelped with pain as Takeru looked in fear of the situation.

_He is horrible, he takes advantage of the last battle with Takeru and is just playing around with him... I have to help Patamon and Takeru!_ Hikari thought as Tailmon slowly got up and they got ready for another evolution.

"Stop it!" Takeru yelled out while IceDevimon continued to laugh over the boy's yelling.

Suddenly, a fiery beast bites down on his icy arms, causing a howl of pain to come out, as Patamon is release while Takeru catches his partner again.

"Patamon! Are you all right? Patamon! Speak to me!" Takeru said in desperation.

Patamon slowly opens his eyes to look to Takeru, and smiling as he did so. "I am fine... except I just can't fight right now..."

Takeru smiles back, with a single tear falling out of his eye. "Thank goodness... I am so glad..."

Hikari places her hand on Takeru's shoulder, giving him assurance of the situation.

"Takeru, don't try to take him on all by yourself. I don't really know that much about what happened in the past, but you've got me and Tailmon here, we're here to help you!" Hikari assured her friend as Takeru took a deep breath.

"You're right... I did seem to lose myself in situations like this... sorry, but it looks like it may be too late now, isn't it?" Takeru said, smiling nervously.

"No, it's never too late; we'll think of something, we always do..." Hikari assures Takeru as IceDevimon continues to yell out in despair at the pain.

"Thank you, Hikari..." Takeru says before standing up.

At the same time, IceDevimon regains himself from the searing heat pain, and decides to that it is time to go full force.

"Fine, so you want to fight for real... here it goes..." IceDevimon said, digging his claws into the ground and flipping a huge tile of the ground to throw at the pair.

With no time to react, Takeru and Hikari could only look onto their doom, until Lynxmon come in and took the hit for both of them. Lynxmon fell over in an instant and immediately changing back into Tailmon.

"Tailmon! Are you ok?" Hikari asked, seeing Tailmon lying down.

"Yes... but I think we should probably retreat by now..." Tailmon huffed out before closing her eyes again.

"See? Nothing any of you can do at this point! Everything is hopeless for you! Just give up, I have only been in hiding to analyse your tactics from afar even throughout time, what you saw earlier in that whirlpool is only a shell... Another thing that you two don't realise is that Hope and Light are useless, mistakes such as you should never exist!" IceDevimon continues to laugh at the pair, further trying to throw them into despair.

For a while, it would seem like there would be nothing to help the situation for either Takeru or Hikari as they look toward their real doom. They had already tried everything in their power to fight him, but nothing worked. Furthermore, they knew that Light and Hope certain is **not** useless, but they could not substantiate that claim right now with their condition.

"That's not true!" Called a voice from the side as the elevator door opens up on the block on the further end that neither anyone took notice of earlier.

Here, Daisuke along with Miyako, Ken and Iori rushes out into the scene to confront the ice beast.

"What? Who are you people? I don't recall ever seeing any of you from before..." IceDevimon said.

"Who cares about that, you'll soon disappear anyway!" Daisuke shoots at the ice devil.

"Is that..." Hikari says, looking at the backside of the new Daisuke.

"Daisuke?" Takeru finished, looking amazed that Daisuke could appear at a time like this.

"Ready? Let's do this!" Miyako cheered, with herself and Iori opening their D-Terminals to armour evolve. Their second baby form Digimons evolves through the increase energy into Child form and into Armour forms of Horusmon and Digmon. With the dark field in effect, Ken is short of options and only could evolve Minomon into Wormmon for some support.

Gold Rush and Red Sun beams fire off, the combined firepower knocks back IceDevimon a little and causes him to go further into desperation, but Nat-chan gracefully moves in front of him and scratches down at the sore spot from Lynxmon's bite earlier. Wormmon follows up with Silk Thread, causing an even greater distress on the enemy Digimon.

Yelling out in pain, IceDevimon grits his teeth and gets angrier than before. Digmon and Horusmon tries to further push the attacks. Only now, IceDevimon yells out in rage and swings around his Razor Wing attacks that cause a storm of a mess with the debris that causes the entire foundation of the platform to shake as the entire group of chosen children and their Digimon scatter.

"Enough of this, I am tired of this 'teamwork' you all keep muttering about, I shall eliminate you all one by one... staring with you!" IceDevimon said, facing Hikari.

Without a Digimon to assist, Hikari only stood in fear with the approaching evil. While IceDevimon smiled sadistically at his prey, while stretching out his wings and launching Icy Shower icicle at Hikari.

"Hikari!" Takeru yelled from his far away position as the icicles smashes into Hikari's area. Miyako, Ken and Iori also look on with worry as the icy mist disappears slowly.

As the icy mist clears up, everyone began to wonder what happen with Hikari. The icicles break apart, and revealing the sight of the outcome.

Here, Hikari is lying on the floor with her face downwards and motionless, void of any signs of life.

As more of the mist clears up, an arm is seen on Hikari, as well as another struggling body beside her. Tailmon soon appears in mid-air, carried by BlackTailmon as the last of the mist clears up.

Hikari slowly opens her eyes and regains consciousness as she sees herself on a different position as well as beside someone else.

Daisuke retracts his hand from Hikari and slowly stands up to face the evil of the stage. In a similar matter, BlackTailmon lays down Tailmon next to Hikari and joins in with Daisuke.

"You... what are you...?" IceDevimon asked, amazed at the quick occurrence of Daisuke.

"What am I? Ha! I should be asking who YOU are!" Daisuke spat out at IceDevimon and look onto the ice demon with burning eyes. "Just who do you think you are, messing with my friends just like that? Ok, maybe I should properly introduce myself: I am your terminator!"

"Daisuke..." Hikari said, looking at Daisuke from behind as Takeru, Miyako, Iori and Ken rushes over to help Hikari up.

"You defeat me? Are you joking?" IceDevimon said in response, though not laughing because of the oddness that Daisuke seem to be facing him.

"Humph... we'll just see about that... Anyway, Ken! Take everyone and get out of here, this place might not last once he's done with..." Daisuke commanded.

"Daisuke? But..." Ken pleaded, only to get another quick response from Daisuke.

"Don't worry! You should know about this... and this place too..."

"Ok, just be careful!" Ken said, as the rest of the group retreats, but Takeru resists to a certain extent.

"Wait just a moment! Daisuke, I don't know where you've come from, but can you really take him alone? He just took out all of us; you saw it with your own eyes too! We've only just seen you for a few moments as well!" Takeru pleaded.

Daisuke remain silent for a little, and then turns his head partway to give his response.

"Takeru... I still have not raided your fridge yet since I came home... do you honestly think I would lose to this nauseating thing? Besides, you can't do much with Patamon in that condition, I know I can handle this... we can't have anymore V-mons now can we?" Daisuke said, giving off a smile on his half-face to Takeru as he throws back Takeru's hat.

Looks at the static face while slowly gets his assurance with Daisuke's actions. "Ok! I trust you!" Takeru calls as he retreats with the rest of the group, who also gives their looks of concern, but know that Daisuke would certainly not lose to the freak. Finally, Daisuke could now go full force without worry about his friends in this showdown.

* * *


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N:**During this absence, I have gone back and re-read parts and its of my dual projects and made some fixes and such, and so this chapter took longer.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Devouring Fear**

The elevator continues to move downward as the group of chosen children takes this time to rest up.

Takeru is holding Patamon in his arms, being glad to see his partner all right. Even though the earlier fight left them in fatigue and soreness, they are alive and well. There may be some difficulties in terms of dealing with present evils, but at least for Takeru he knows he is not alone. Although the most surprising thought would still be Daisuke's timely rescue at that moment, it seems to be so quick... Yet it also proves to be a relief of some sort.

Ken stands on the other end of the elevator, pondering about the current situation. He knew that with Daisuke and BlackTailmon would be no problem since the environment gives them the same advantage as the enemy. Very weird thought indeed, as Ken wonders about how Daisuke would fit into all this. _Right now, the situation may be stable because of Daisuke's timely rescue, but what about later? Should either Hikari or Takeru reject him, nothing good will come up with division amongst the team._

Iori and Armadimon stands along with Ken, but a little less in thought. Their fight's end seems to be to be so sudden that they could still feel the air of battle in the air. Right now, the only thought would be how Daisuke would manage an opponent of that strength alone. Nevertheless, it is not productive to think about one event too much, as the dual settles down to relax their minds from the recent chaos.

Miyako and Hikari sits next to each other, Miyako encourages Hikari to stay strong at this situation. Sure, many things take place in one sitting, but surely there is no need to feel down with that retreat. Instead, trust may be what Hikari needs now with the disorder of the roof situation.

The general condition of the room seem to be morose, but at the same time relief washes over the team as they continue to let the sound of the passing elevator run through the room.

Back at the rooftop, IceDevimon gives a little thought to the reason that Daisuke would send his friends away in one instant. The simple conclusion would be that the boy is either very brave or very foolish.

"So... It looks like that with the trash out of the way, the real show starts..." IceDevimon breathed out.

"Trash out of the way? The only trash I see is you, and are you ever ugly..." Daisuke responds, letting off a small smile.

"Oh really now, your friend back there said something similar, and look how he ended up! I suppose you may be no differ- AHHH!" IceDevimon shouted as he could feel a surge of pain from behind on the left leg.

From behind, Nat-chan speeds away from the ice Devil that yelps in pain from a hard scratch while regrouping with Daisuke. Daisuke takes the moment to laugh at the ice demon that is in pain from the scratch, as the sight seems to be too funny.

"You think this is funny? I will give you something to laugh at!" The ice devil shouted in response to the laughing.

Once again, IceDevimon releases Icicles from his Icy Shower attack, and the icicles plummet down onto the battlefield where Daisuke and Nat-chan manages to escape by just a margin. However, the anger from that one sneak attack did stir up a certain amount of hate within the ice devil to be merciless and devious in anyway possible. Flying up into the air, IceDevimon further terrorises the area with Zero Freeze beams, but Daisuke and Nat-chan luckily and miraculously evades the beams from freezing them over.

Even with such luck to evade the attacks, the cat-Digimon and her partner now found themselves in the middle of the stage with no more places to escape.

"This isn't good... looks like we just have to think of something else..." Daisuke commented, looking up to see IceDevimon preparing the next attack, or rather just a leap downwards. Without much thought, Daisuke picked up Nat-chan and leaped out of the way just in time of a crash.

This crash lead to a blowing of a hole in the middle of the stage as IceDevimon fell down yelling out something. Nat-chan stood up, faces the giant hole in the middle, from her senses she could tell the battle is far from over, and that the enemy still lurks down on the bottom somewhere.

"Daisuke, I think I will need more power to take this one down... perhaps even evolving..." Nat-chan informed, looking at the situation of both the field and the limited space to fight.

"Huh? He's still around huh? Figures, but why don't we just get out of here if he's going to be elsewhere for now, because we've got the chance to run..." Daisuke suggested, giving a light laughter to his voice.

"What? But you said we were going to beat him and that everything will be ugly... Is that all just a bluff?" Nat-chan asked back at Daisuke's comment.

"Well, yes! It is just a bluff! We can't take that ugly ice cube down, but we can run when he's out, so that we can think of something else later!" Daisuke laughed out in response; certainly, the decision to stay behind is not a sagacious one but just a diversion.

"Unbelievable..." Nat-chan commented at her partner's frivolous attitude in the situation.

Before the laughter could continue for any longer, an ice pillar busted out from the hole in the centre and both the Digimon and Chosen one looked onto the scene with some fear as the ice devil emerges once more.

"You think you can get rid of me that easily? You're wrong!" IceDevimon roared out, looking down on the pair with an even greater amount of cold hate.

Daisuke acted quickly and picks up Nat-chan and running for the elevator door that slides open and escapes while IceDevimon shouts at the appalling scene.

"What! Coward!" IceDevimon shouted at the pair that fled, but unable to stop them as the elevator door closed and went down. "Fine, we'll settle this at the bottom... Ahhh!" IceDevimon yelled out again as the ice he was standing on breaks, causing him to fall down the tower again.

In the elevator, Daisuke slowly calms down. Maybe the outcome did not turn out for the best, but at least now, there would be time to escape and rethink the situation. Perhaps it would be very possible to fight, and it certainly is not impossible to win. However, Daisuke knew there would be too much risk involved at the current situation with what he is thinking. At least his joking and easy-going attitude brought them through now. Sadly, Nat-chan could see right through her partner's personality barrier and could still see it now with the uneasiness.

"Daisuke... we could have beaten him, but why didn't we? I could evolve no problem, and then..." Nat-chan just said, but Daisuke is barely paying attention.

Inside Daisuke's head is where the scene of a twisted evolution came into place. A more unnatural type of way to evolve, and once into this state of evolution, all type of hate and power would be used without stopping, and all that's left will be destruction and desolation. Indeed such is true for the appearance of that LadyDevimon at that time, destroying everything without warning and almost completely out of control. Barely did Daisuke's voice reach her, and only then did Nat-chan's true self-recovered into the scene. Even then, though, the leftover of what happened because of that evolution did put quite a scar in the memory of Daisuke.

_It is just that easy to beat that guy... but... what will happen if I try to use evolution powers again? Will it end up like what happened last time? Did my last evolution corrupt my ability to evolve Nat-chan properly forever? I could have asked Ken on the way to deal with something like this since he probably felt this kind of experience before... A little too late for now, and even if I could evolve properly, what will everyone think? We've just met after that one year and am I suppose to show them all how evil I look? I've got to think of something later... although thinking is not what I am best at, hehe..._ Daisuke processed in his head in response to the current situation.

"Daisuke? Are you feeling sick?" Nat-chan asked as she jumped onto Daisuke's shoulder, as the Chosen Child is still deep in thought.

"Huh? No... It's nothing... we should get going soon..." Daisuke said quickly in response, still in a paralysed state from the memories and possibly of everything that has to do with "evolve" now.

Back outside on the first floor, the pair looks to their left as the see IceDevimon just laying there immobile for whatever unknown reason.

"What happened to him? He beat us down here and he appears like he lost or something, oh well, better run..." Daisuke noted as the pair takes their exit of the building.

Of course, back inside IceDevimon makes his awakening, to his inconvenience, sees the elevator down already, and empty of any occupants. Getting up fully on a not-so-great state, he slowly heads for the exit.

Outside, Daisuke and Nat-chan recognised the concentration of energy at the area, obviously, this would be the centre of the area with these dark energies and since there would be nothing to hinder him from doing his task, Daisuke immediately gets to work.

Concentrating the energies of his Digivice, Daisuke shoots up a beam that begins to neutralise the area with his own weird type of powers. With the thickness of the field and the energies, it proved to be impossible for Daisuke to disperse it, but he did manage to weaken the general state of the field and causing the energies to flow freely around the area. Putting down his hands, Daisuke and Nat-chan could see the energies surrounding them in a circular motion. It would always be the same deal: Eat or be eaten. Surely, this time was no different, but it did seem strange when Daisuke thinks of the evolution process and how they are going to manage this scene. After all, IceDevimon could not possibly be out that easily when they did not really do anything yet.

"Hmm, guess we can't disperse it just by brute force, we'll have to take some of this with us as we go..." Daisuke said taking note of some of the energies that is flowing into Nat-chan and himself.

Daisuke and Nat-chan continued to head for the nearest exit to the field, although the area is almost falling apart as Daisuke did manage to dissipate the centre point of the field. Along the way, they also absorb some of the surrounding darkness as their own source of energy.

"Looks like if this place falls down everything will be taken with it... I wonder how we'll explain or handle this afterwards..." Daisuke noted, looking at the taller buildings and the general area of the place is under the dark field.

"Nothing we can do about it, as long as we leave it alone we should be fine, right Daisuke? That's what you would say," Nat-chan said in response, looking at Daisuke with a smile.

"Yeah, maybe..." Daisuke responds, while opening a hole in the base of the dark field to secure their escape route. However, as he did that, a sheet of ice appears over the exit, cutting off the exit. Turning around, IceDevimon hovers in the air above the pair and prepares for another Zero Freeze attack.

The immediate reaction to the attack would be a quick run away, as Daisuke and Nat-chan flees from the area back into the condensed city-area and into a narrow alley.

"Daisuke, I need to evolve if we are to beat him up, he's too quick, and his attacks can freeze us even," Nat-chan informs, looking back in the direction they ran from and seeing the area all being frozen-solid.

"I know, but..." Daisuke said quickly in response, still thinking of the consequences of the evolution from before.

"But what? Our lives depend on our power, and we do have that power to evolve..." Nat-chan almost asked knowing about Daisuke's uneasiness.

"I know that, it's just that... I can't!" Daisuke slowly processed out, then stopping in the running along with his partner.

Nat-chan faced Daisuke at the stop of movement; she knew something was up, but what? Certainly cannot be the power, maybe something to do with confidence, but perhaps not... "What is it?"

"Well, I just... don't want a repeat of that time... what if you don't evolve 'correctly', or something goes wrong? I really can't risk that again..." Daisuke finally explained, though uncertainty still fills his voice.

"That was the past though; we may just be able to..." Nat-chan said, then ducking as more Zero Freeze beams explode at their location, freezing more pieces of the land. The alley way did not prove to be a good place to be in this situation, as the frozen areas would put the pair prone to slipping.

"No more escape for you two, this is the end! It would be too easy to eliminate the two of you; perhaps I should keep you in my personal prison where you two will become my source of energy... After all, you two are similar to me, using the power of this darkness around us... huh? Where did you two go?" IceDevimon said, as he looked around to see his prey having disappeared again.

Of course, on the frozen ground Daisuke and Nat-chan could not go very far on feet. Because of this, the raging ice demon still sees them clearly and prepares for another Icy Shower attack and shooting the icicles around the alleyway, causing much debris to fall off from the higher parts of the buildings. These obstacles would prove useful in the hindrance of the escaping pair. To make things more interesting, IceDevimon also fires off more Zero Freeze beams that seem to be even more of hindrance.

Still, Daisuke manages to evade complete disaster in the escape, as the beams would always miss him by just a small bit. At the intervals between falling chunks of building pieces and Zero Freeze beams would be, Daisuke would take the opportunity and climb up the building debris and jump down on the other side to continue running away. Finally, what seems to be like an eternity for Daisuke and his partner, they finally came out of the alley way and into a more familiar opening. Here they immediately noticed the area to be the same area that the group entered.

Whether his friend were still around or not did not really matter that much because even if he escaped, the situation will only be worse with IceDevimon outside of the dark field to cause trouble for outside areas. There would be no time to think as IceDevimon quickly caught up in the chase and started to throw icicles like spears at the pair.

Yelling out for their lives, the pair ran as fast as they could, despite the fact that now their peers would see their ludicrous way of "handling" the enemy, but it was certainly better than losing their lives altogether.

As the yelling and the crashing of icicles continued, the rest of the group did take notice of the commotion and turned back to look into the dark field to see the ridiculous sight.

"What the... Is running around with that guy suppose to be properly taking care of him?" Takeru asked out loud hearing as if Daisuke is laughing at the dangerous situation.

"At least that leaves no doubt that the person in front of us is indeed Daisuke... Seems like a normal thing he would do..." Ken stated, looking on as more crashes and yells ring across the place.

"Should we go help him then? Looks like he would need it..." Iori said, taking notice of the situation getting worse.

"Ok... we should be able to evolve to full power outside the field, and afterwards attempt an attack from behind the enemy..." Ken instructed, letting his plan flow out.

Back inside the field, Daisuke and Nat-chan continues to run, still evolution is impossible at this point because of self-doubt from Daisuke. They continued to run, until Daisuke tripped and fell down, where then IceDevimon immediately sealed off all exits to the area with Zero Freeze, and this time there would be no escape.

"Enough of this nonsense boy... I've grown tired of this little game... time to end this..." IceDevimon breathed out, a little exhausted from the attacks and chasing the pair around.

Daisuke immediately saw something in his sight, and began to laugh at the situation. Certainly, the situation is interesting, but he knew this is all over and just decided to take it easy.

"Well, not quite. You'd better look behind you or else it's really all over..." Daisuke laughed out, still smiling.

"That's not going to work; you're just out of ways to escape..." IceDevimon cheered, thinking that Daisuke could be lying around, but the fact is far from it.

From the back of IceDevimon, the Spiking Finish and Red Sun beams attacks forces right on his back, causing the ice Digimon to fly forwards, where Daisuke and Nat-chan jumps out of the way to avoid collision. The sight that followed is a most hilarious one fitting to the situation as IceDevimon had his own head stuck into the wall of his own ice along with his hands, rendering him immobile.

Not wasting a single second, Daisuke flashes his Digivice at the unsuspecting foe, absorbing the enemy into his own Digivice to quarantine it.

**Hahaha! You and your friends are tricky... I guess this is the end of me...** said the familiar voice in Daisuke's head.

_So it was you from that time... But how and why?_ Daisuke responded back in his thoughts, and a little confused to why it was this Digimon that called out to him.

**It does not matter now, you've taken care of me and there won't be anymore voices in your head, but listen to this: As long as you and your partner linger around in this world, everything will be put in danger!** IceDevimon's telepath voice ringed before completely dying down.

"Wow, do you mind explaining that later?" Takeru said as he saw the enemy completely disappear.

"Yeah, I can... but right now I suggest we get out of here..." Daisuke said in response, as the dark field along with whatever is inside begins to collapse at a high destructive rate.

Quickly the group evacuated the area and saw the dark field come down with a crash and evaporating into the air. However, the remains of the area would be a big surprise to the group: a perfectly normal and functioning part of the city without any damage.

"Huh, what just happened? Didn't everything got destroyed and then turned into air?" Miyako asked, looking in amazement, as the inhabitants of the affected area seem to be moving about normally.

"It looks like whatever was in that field was in another dimension that landed onto this place, it may have looked similar to our place, but in reality is just a replica of some sort... still, looks pretty strange..." Ken observed.

"Well, at least for now we're safe, and all six of us is together again too," Hikari noted.

"Oh right, I almost forgot... so... where has this sloppy, stupid, lazy, unacceptable..." Miyako listed, but soon ignored as the conversation went on.

"Well, at least Ken has told all of you about V-mon, but... there's sure a lot of things that are best explained in detail, but right now, we need to be caught up immediately with what's going on first... Iori, who is this Ophanimon you spoke of?" Daisuke said, trying to release some stress from the past event.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Miyako shouted, still trying to take her poke at Daisuke until Ken calms her down.

"Well, she claims to be this celestial Digimon and a servant of Qinglongmon, but..." Iori managed to say before a large disturbing noise interrupts the scene, and everyone looks in Daisuke's direction with a weird look.

"Oh, so sorry, looks like our discussion will have to wait, it's lunchtime. I'd say we go to Takeru's house to finish this," Daisuke decided in response to the weird stares.

"What? My house?" Takeru asked, surprised at that answer.

"Sure, why not? I did say that your fridge has to be raided before anything else, so let's go, we're all hungry..." Daisuke trailed off and started to walk in the direction of Takeru's house to the best of his memory.

"Y-you were serious about that?" Takeru asked again, knowing that Daisuke would just empty his fridge and there would be countless hours of explanation on that.

"Come on, you know it just won't be Daisuke not to cause inconvenience for all of us..." Ken said to Takeru, causing the Chosen of Hope to sigh in defeat, whatever happens to the fridge would surely be a disaster.

Therefore, it would be agreed to settle all the formal introductions at Takeru's house for now, and Nat-chan happily jumps on Daisuke's shoulder at the end of this little scene, but Tailmon begins to doubt a little at the sight of the virus black cat. Although Hikari seem to not notice now due to all the events that happened so far just now would prove to be tiring. Besides, Hikari is interested to find out about how Daisuke miraculously came back into the scene so suddenly.

* * *

Worse is not yet to come, but this chapter mainly dealt with the fear that should be dealt with before going on. Fear not, many more scenes are planned to bring out the golden scene. Still, this chapter came out way shorter than I thought it would, but oh well...


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Serious technical difficulties delayed this chapter; updates may be slower as long as technical difficulties remain.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Doubt and Division**

In the ending of the scene with the whole dark pillar setting down in town, Daisuke explains to his allies about his own journeys in the Digital World and some other important details. Of course, Daisuke would rather skip the other details on some of the more embarrassing moments and just explain the gist of everything else.

One day passes by after the explanations and now silence settles into the lives of the Chosen Children. True enough that there is a certain degree of happiness with everyone seeing Daisuke alive, but three specific figures would think otherwise.

Iori himself has his own ideas about the whole situation even with just the mention of Daisuke's Digimental and the seemingly unbelievable story. Iori has no method of proving his ideas at currently, but he holds onto his ideas and speculation until needed. Regardless of the fact that Iori has learned about judging people from the past, he certainly will not let this one go. The other two figures that have their doubts are the Tailmon and Patamon pair. Despite actually being saved by the missing Chosen and his new Digimon, the mere presence of the BlackTailmon immediately puts them into a high-alert situation. Who knows? One can never tell if someone is under the effects by the forces of evil until it is too late, and this is true by how Ken started at first with his seemingly affable personality in the beginning and eventually finding out his sadistic side. In the same way, until there is a way to substantiate that Daisuke is not some sort of puppet by the force of darkness, the doubt continues to linger.

Obviously, given the experiences for the Digimon and the Chosen Child they would rather think differently in this situation as opposed to their partners who are just glad to see a friend alive.

In the midst of the silence, Daisuke gets up with just his normal attitude and usual attire. For the past day of silence did give him a little bit of a respite in between all the action, and probably reintroducing himself to some people in some cases. Most of the older Chosen either only knew a little about his disappearance or just do not know anything at all. It did not matter to Daisuke, all that does matter is he is back home.

Getting up from the slumber from the day before on a summer day made Daisuke very lazy, but then again, he has nothing to do now anyway.

"Sometimes I can't believe I am actually back home..." Daisuke said to himself as he stares outside through his window. Everything seemed to be quite pleasant with the sun's ray setting down onto the buildings and giving life to the areas that are lit.

At the same time, Nat-chan also slowly awakens from her slumber. "Daisuke, Is this what humans do all the time? Sleeping, eating and more sleeping?" The cat asked.

"Ummm, well... no, usually there would be school, and it will be like working as a slave, but right now it is just a holiday that's all... Anyway, I am not really sure if everyone seems all right when I explained the story to them, but perhaps I shouldn't think too much, since I never did want to think so much anyway... instead, I think I am going to see someone today, and perhaps he can give me some advice..." Daisuke replied, finally starting to struggle out of bed.

Of course, there would be nothing to do on a summer day inside one's own house except send e-mails all the day, but no one wants to do that. Quickly raiding the fridge for a quick snack, Daisuke and his partner ran off away from the house and went along to see whom Daisuke wanted to see. However, before actually leaving the house Daisuke would knock hard on Jun's door and then run away, just so he would have a reason not to come back until way later in the day.

The summer time gives Daisuke the chance to find who he is looking for. Very true that there is a chance that the selected person may be busy at this time of day, but this person is probably the most sagacious in dealing with these kinds of situations.

"Who are we going to see at the moment?" Nat-chan asked again and she and Daisuke continued to walk through the streets of the city.

"Someone who might know how to handle the problem with our situation, because with the way about everyone looked at me when I was explaining everything to them seems to be hostile or disbelief... Somehow, I could just read that right off their faces as I told my story... Looks like it's one of the things I've gotten better at since I needed to be more aware during that one year in the Digital World," Daisuke explained, while turning the corner of another large edifice.

Just before making a final turn on the series of buildings in this part of the city, Daisuke and his partner notices a strange changing of lighting in the area. Looking cautiously at the sky, a black warp is seen, and soon a white light grows from behind two buildings and illuminates the area. After the light subsides, the black warp is gone, but curiosity sets in as Daisuke wonders what this could be. Running towards the site of events taking place, Daisuke could see a post-battle field area with a lone victor.

Whoever was fighting in the area seems to be really fighting a long battle, but the one lone victor appeared to be in a good condition with the dark-teal armour and everything intact, including her golden spear.

_Wow, so is this Ophanimon?_ Daisuke thought as the Angel-Warrior slowly regained herself.

"Hey! Are you all right over there?" Daisuke yelled out, scaring about everyone in range of his voice.

Ophanimon turned around to see the pair and froze for a little bit. After a bit of silence Ophanimon finally said something, "Are you a Chosen Child?"

"Of course! Well... when the barriers between the Digital World and this World broke, everyone got their Digimon partner, so in a way there is not anymore 'Chosen'. Anyway Mister, are you a servant from Qinglongmon that is said to eliminate the strange black warps in the sky? Because that was a pretty impressive performance in eliminating that..." Daisuke commented.

There was another moment of silence as Ophanimon slowly formulated a response to the question and comment.

"Yes, I am a servant... though my master is away at the moment; I got orders to investigate this area... I know that there are Chosen Children working at the same time, although some of these invasions seem more dangerous than others..." Ophanimon informed.

"Cool, so any clues on why they keep appearing out of nowhere? Peace is kind of hard to maintain with them around you know..." Daisuke asked again, hoping to get some more information.

"That is something unknown at the moment, but perhaps an answer will come soon enough as time passes by. Right now I sense another invasion somewhere else, until we meet again" Ophanimon replied and flew away, but Daisuke still wanted more information.

"Hey! Wait a moment mister! Oh, he's gone... well, whatever..." Daisuke finished and continued back on track to his original route. "Boy, that sure was one strange fellow there..."

"Daisuke... that Digimon was female..." Nat-chan informed, hoping that her partner knew.

As Daisuke tried to take another step, he froze in the middle and stood there, stagnant. Nat-chan also stopped to wait for Daisuke's response, but for a while, there was a huge silence in the air.

"Oh..." Daisuke breathed out slowly as he realised what he said earlier.

Without much talk except the occasional snickers from Nat-chan at Daisuke's earlier conversation, the walk to their location very quiet, yet embarrassing to some extent. As the two arrived at their location, Daisuke took note of something ahead, immediately went to the side, and hid with Nat-chan following close by.

Looking out to the opening, Daisuke could hear footsteps coming his way, and this would be his excellent opportunity, and just as the footsteps were about to reach his location, Daisuke jumped out and greeted his friend.

"Hey Jou!" Daisuke yelled out in a happy tone of voice.

"W-w-wow!" Jou yelled out in surprise at the sudden outburst. "Oh... it's only you... I thought I was going to get mugged..."

"I wasn't planning that exactly... but... if you want me to..." Daisuke joked, putting a smile on his face.

"Well, no! Forget that... I... Hey, Daisuke? Where have you been? I heard that you went missing around this time last summer?" Jou questioned as he realised that the person who scared him is Daisuke.

"Yeah I did... and after that many things happened... Although right now I am faced with some problems and maybe I thought you could give some help..." Daisuke said in response.

"Me? Well, I suppose I have time, but really, what happened to you?" Jou questioned.

After setting down somewhere else, Daisuke did a short summary of all the events up until the day before with IceDevimon.

"I see... it really did look like you went through a bunch of unpleasant things... and here Mimi got all worried about the situation" Jou spoke up after the retelling of the simple story.

"Mimi? What happened there?" Daisuke questioned.

"Well, she did explain what happened with that other world the three of you went to during the summer, and that itself is a major mystery... but I guess what happened afterward seemed more of a mystery... still, she was quite worried when the egg disappeared and you no longer responded to her messages" Jou commented.

"Haha, really? Looks like I should respond back when I get the chance... anyway, for now what do you think I should do in my situation? It doesn't look like everyone around is very welcoming at the moment..." Daisuke said in concern, getting to the main topic at hand.

"Yes, about that... I guess there are some ways I could relate with the many numerous life situations... now, let's see..." Jou trailed off, recalling some old memories.

Meanwhile, at another location of Odaiba a pair of Digimon gets together in counsel to discuss certain matters. The two Digimon--Tailmon and Patamon, both have a bad experience and memory of the past with anything related to darkness, and now with what Daisuke brought back into the group of Chosen, they think the situation is a mere mutiny. Despite the calm serene scene in the park area outside, the issue the two Digimon are dealing with is opposite to that of the weather.

"I don't know about this, but even back there during that day, it felt all cold and something just isn't quite right..." Patamon started, noting the most obvious reasons for their meeting.

"While that may be true, how will we get support from Hikari and Takeru? We know that they are happy to see their friend back and with his new partner," Tailmon pointed, as without the aid of their respective partner they could not really evolve on their own.

"I am thinking up something for that issue, since we really don't have much power ourselves in dealing with everything..." Patamon said, but unaware of another figure that appeared earlier into the scene.

"Are the two of you talking about Daisuke and his new partner?" Said the intruding voice.

Turning around, the two Digimon could see that they might have been detected in their discussion, but maybe not by somebody who would tell everyone.

"It's Iori... did you hear everything?" Tailmon questioned.

"Only part of it... but... I think I can see that we all think the same... I am not entirely sure about this... but I do think that we should talk about it with Hikari and Takeru before actually doing something..." Iori explained.

"But if you actually understand... then we might be able to think of some way where we can get into our evolved forms and then we can do something..." Tailmon advised.

"Maybe... but it could be a misunderstanding... I still remember that when Ken first renounced his Kaiser status I did not trust him at all, but later on he really did change... maybe we're just not seeing the..." Iori tried to explain as Patamon said something in place.

"That may be true, but that was only because Ken realised his mistake and decided to change. Here, we have no idea where or why Daisuke came back from nowhere, for all we know he could be just a spy of some sort with his partner waiting for chance to strike at us... Besides, of all the Chosen that we've ever met, no one ever has come close to having a partner that looks so... grim" Tailmon speculated, knowing full well that the BlackTailmon with Daisuke seems to be nothing but pure evil.

"I guess... that may be right... however, how are we going to prove it that the two are spies?" Iori questioned if there was action to be taken, there would have to be some proof behind it, otherwise any senseless action could lead to trouble instead.

The three is left with deep thought until they did come up with some sort of plan to do what they desire. Of course, with a plan formed, it would be very soon that the three would put into action whatever is planned, but first thing that is needed is an appropriate location and time.

As the time passes through the day, some places on Odaiba is filled with unrest as some of the dark warps seem to be really a hindrance in the everyday life of the city, although some more major than others do. Nevertheless, Daisuke and Nat-chan continues their way back home after the long talk with Jou.

Certainly, the older Chosen has many experiences and stories to share, and one of the many notable things that seem to be common in the stories is that trust building may take some time, especially after long periods of separation.

Hmm, what Jou said is true... perhaps I just have to wait and see what I could do to prove that I am not just the bringer of doom, haha... Daisuke thought as he rolled up the words 'bring of doom' in his mind.

Later that day in the nighttime, Daisuke and Nat-chan return to the room after learning that Jun is not around much to their relief. In the quietness of the room, Daisuke is reading a manga book while Nat-chan is searching through the messy room for something of interest. Nat-chan may be a Digimon with basic knowledge of the Digital World, but perhaps not so much with the human world. Looking through the piles of cluttered mess, she found a sheet of paper, and on it contained information that someone like Gennai probably slipped into the room while unnoticed.

"Daisuke, what is this?" She asked, flipping the ruined piece of paper over the manga that Daisuke is reading.

Daisuke quickly scanned the sheet, it a piece of paper that Gennai probably left in his room prior to him coming back telling him of all the material to catch up in school. Of course, Daisuke would rather just enjoy the holiday rather than do the suggested work.

"Oh, it's just the school things I have to catch up on... I'll do it the last week before school starts!" Daisuke dismissed the piece of paper quickly and getting back into his manga.

"The paper did say something about reading a book, and since you're reading now anyway, why not just read the selected book?" Nat-chan questioned, seeing that it would be an easy way to eliminate one of the things to do.

Daisuke put down the manga and explained his case about the reading, "Well, that may be true... but I don't want to bother going through some boring book when I have manga that is much more interesting"

"What is this about?" Nat-chan asked, looking at the book that has seemed to have a big picture on the cover with some people on it.

"This? It is actually a book about a few kids and their Digimon much like we are... except in this universe, the systems seem to change quite a bit. Instead of having the Digimon fighting all the time just like normal, their partners, called _Tamers_ in this book, have the option of _Card Slash_ through their Digivices called D-Arcs to help their partners. Now, in the beginning of this story, Takato Matsuda sort of creates his partner, Guilmon. Afterwards, many adventures unfold for them including the meeting of other Tamers like Jenrya Li with Terriermon and Ruki Makino with a Renamon. I was originally reading the books before with V-mon, but then that event happened and I never did get to find out what happened. Upon coming back, I bought the volumes with the yen I have, but they are a lot harder to find because it finished during my absence. I want to find out what happens since this Takato seems to be in love with Ruki or something..." Daisuke explained as he got back into the manga again.

"That's interesting... but didn't that Jou person said that perhaps you should send Mimi an e-mail since she did worry about whatever happened with you and me," Nat-chan said, remembering the words of Jou.

Daisuke pushed the book away as he remembered by the reminder, "Right, I forgot all about it!" Daisuke said as he picked up his D-Terminal to start an e-mail.

As Daisuke was busy composing the e-mail, Nat-chan took the time to look through the Digimon Tamers manga through the first book about Takato, Jenrya, Ruki, Juri, Hirokazu, and Kenta. The atmosphere seems to intensify as a feeling of coldness gripped the two, alerting them of something outside.

"Looks like the day is not over yet..." Daisuke said as he picked up both the D-Terminal and his Digivice. Nat-chan knew very well what the cold feeling meant as well, as the pair rushed out of the house they quickly headed towards the direction of the source for the uneasy feeling.

Arriving at the beach, Daisuke and Nat-chan could sense some sort of familiar feeling in this place, as the waters grew darker, an insectoid Digimon flew out of the water. It is obvious by observation that this Ookuwamon is aggressive and not in a good mood.

_That's great news... is his appearance trying to remind me of something?_ Daisuke thought, as a battle started. With the experience battle, Nat-chan is aiming for survival with the Digimon rather than to win. She knows that evolution may be impossible as long as Daisuke continues to be in doubt. Daisuke is thankful that at least the battlefield is somewhere that is small and will not be really damaging to the general populace. At the same time, Daisuke also wished that the area could be bigger so that the furious claw attacks of the enemy Digimon will not come in close proximity of him either.

Not far away from the battlefield, two pairs of eyes watch the battle; these belong to Armadimon and Iori.

"Are you really sure we should go through with this Iori? It seems like that we aren't really choosing the best choice possible," Armadimon protested.

"I know, and I am not asking you to fight in this case, we just came to find proof of the situation, now just go and tell them, this looks a little dangerous anyway" Iori instructed.

The battle continues to rage on, and it would seem like that Daisuke and Nat-chan manages to avoid serious harm for the time being. However, their stamina is now at its limit, and everything seemed to be useless against the perfect form Digimon.

"What do you think? Should I evolve?" Nat-chan asked, seeing no other option.

"Well, I am sure you could, but I am just still a little scared myself..." Daisuke breathed, as the Ookuwamon seem to come into close proximity of the two.

Before anything else happened in that scene, a cluster of Shooting Stars came down and the large insect backed off in pain. Looking up, Daisuke saw Pegasmon preparing to land, arriving with Hikari, Takeru and Tailmon.

"Hey Daisuke! Try to buy us some time while we loosen up his power," Takeru commanded, and Daisuke nodded at the plan.

Nat-chan got up again and along with Daisuke taunted the enemy Digimon, then running away fast to avoid the claw attacks. This gave way to Pegasmon for dissipating the black mass residing in the waters.

The area did seem to be no different to that of the Dark Ocean world, and Pegasmon quickly shot a Silver Blaze into the waters, causing a surge of energy in the general area. Just like Hikari's first visit in the Dark Ocean back years ago, her own powers activated and gave way for Tailmon to evolve into Angewomon, while Pegasmon landed on the soft sand, reverted back to Patamon and also evolved into Angemon to give further support.

With both angelic Digimon present, the current enemy proves to be no trouble at all as their holy attacks easily knocked back the insectoid. Of course, Daisuke unaware of their intentions went right ahead to quarantine the dark Digimon with his Digivice, falling into a trap.

"Looks like it is over... but with how everything looks, it did look like that place…" Takeru commented, feeling relief that the fight with a perfect form invader is over.

"Yeah, but we're all ok, right?" Hikari questioned, but not knowing what both Angewomon and Angemon is about to do.

"Not yet, there still remains one unfinished task..." Angewomon said, quickly turning and throwing a Celestial Arrow in the direction of Daisuke and Nat-chan.

Daisuke and Nat-chan swiftly evaded the attack and slowly got back up from the sand, confusing sinking deep into their minds. Hikari, Takeru and Iori looked on in surprise at the action.

"Angewomon? What are you doing?" Hikari asked.

"Eliminating the cause of our troubles..." Angewomon replied bitterly as she looked down at the pair.

"Wait! I thought we were only trying to find out about the case, not attack them!" Iori injected, seeing as the scene is not what was planned.

"Everyone saw it with their own eyes... our proof is done, it looks like that the enemy who has been luring the evil into our place is him..." Angemon explained, specifically pointing at Daisuke.

Daisuke slowly got up and said something in defence, not knowing how well it will turn out. "H-hey, wait a minute... y-you guys can't be serious can you?" he said with a slight laugh to his voice.

The response is met with a harsh reply in the form of another Celestial Arrow at Daisuke's way, but he barely escapes the arrow. A Heaven's Knuckle followed the arrow, blasting the area to cause a ripping effect on Daisuke and Nat-chan.

"Angemon! Stop this at once! What is this, what have they ever done?" Takeru asked a little frightened at what his partner is doing.

"Takeru, you must understand this, that Digimon is not normal, nor is that Digivice. Such an abomination did not exist before with the Chosen, and there's no reason that it would now..." Angemon explained, and then rushed forward with his Holy Rod attacking, barely missing the targets. Angewomon continued her attacks with Heaven's Kick.

Daisuke and Nat-chan continued to run for their lives as the attacks continued, despite the desperate calls from Hikari and Takeru, the two angelic Digimon did not stop in their attacks.

Of course, the constant attacks around the area attracted some attention and Miyako appears in the scene in wonder of what is happening.

"Enough of this, Saint Air!" Angewomon declared, causing the battlefield to freeze with her energy.

Daisuke and Nat-chan freezes under the field, and now Angemon transferred the power of his Heaven's Knuckle to the ring as Angewomon concentrated energy for her Celestial Arrow.

"Why're you doing this!? You can't kill our friends!" Hikari yelled out to Angewomon, but to no avail.

Everyone else in the scene also yelled out to the two angels, trying to get them to stop from their unjust actions. None of the voices reached them as Angewomon pulled the arrow, aimed at the direction of Daisuke and Nat-chan.

"Are you really going to shoot?" Asked a voice.

Angewomon looked in front to see that Ken had stepped in front of her prey, obviously trying to stop her from attacking.

"I was once the Digimon Kaiser, so if you are really going to shoot someone because of their association with darkness, then are you really going to hit me as well?" Ken questioned.

Angewomon hesitated for a little bit, but then put forth her own reply. "You've got it all wrong... a person who is under the influence of darkness is nowhere as disgusting as someone who is directly using those powers..." Angewomon replied, flying up at a higher altitude and aiming the arrow.

Daisuke looked on with fear as the events took place. How was he going to prove himself? Certainly it was not looking good and in a few moments he would be no more and the same thing with Nat-chan.

_I guess I do not blame them for being so closed-minded about all this darkness issues, but... is this necessary?_ Daisuke thought, as he could not find a solution as his partner is equally scared.

The Celestial Arrow is cast off, flying at a great speed towards the pair looking at their doom, nothing seem to really matter at that moment as the arrow drew nearer by the few seconds. _Sorry Nat-chan... I think I doubted you too much for my own good..._ Daisuke thought, feeling a little mixture of sadness, fear, and even anger.

While all seems to end around the scene, Daisuke's D-Terminal opened, glowed its power and covered Daisuke and Nat-Chan in a blue sphere. The Blue sphere immediately expanded outwards in great speed. Angewomon saw the force rushing out and evade it in time, but Angemon could not dodge the sphere in the evasion and flies backwards, reverting into Patamon and lands in Takeru's hands.

"No! We're too late..." Angewomon said, knowing what is to come.

"Patamon..." Takeru said, looking at his partner with concern, Patamon slowly awoke, but saying something that is completely unrelated.

"I told you all... this is an... abomination..." Patamon uttered out, putting his head down to rest.

_What?_ Takeru thought as he heard a gasp from Hikari and a half-scream from Miyako. Iori merely looked on with surprised eyes while Ken's expression remained unchanged.

As the area of fog slowly clears up, Daisuke is left kneeling down at his current location, but what had left all the other Chosen Children paralysed in this situation is Nat-chan rising behind Daisuke... As LadyDevimon.

* * *

The way this chapter works is like this: I have passed by one year in this fic, so there are bound to be some changes in the characters as well as some stubbornness that does appear in everyone generally, though it may not be explicitly stated this is one possible stubborn part on the Digimons part if thought is given to this. Well, I tried to do whatever is possible to keep ICness, but maybe that didn't come out too well...

And... about a particular part in the chapter... well, couldn't resist and just had to put in some hinting of Rukato, so enjoy!


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N:** All right, so in the making of this chapter, I had in mind some other things to do with the situation, but some sort of big fight is highly anticipated, so guess I cannot ignore that... Well, I have decided to go half-and-half on the scene then, so enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Coercion **

The air fills with uneasiness as the scene begins to restart itself with an angel and the fallen angel. Nobody knew exactly what to say in this situation, is Daisuke a friend or foe? Certainly, such a question did not really need to be asked in Daisuke's initial appearance, but what about now? Perhaps it is almost as if wolves exposed from under the sheep's skin.

Ken slowly approached Daisuke, making sure that his friend is not in anyway harmed during the event prior to the LadyDevimon appearing.

"Daisuke, are you all right?" the boy started.

Daisuke slowly rose from his position without much of a change in mood from before, and slowly turned to his friend.

"I suppose... but about a half-second later from that force, I think it would have been quite nasty..." Daisuke commented, and pulled off his current pair of ruined goggles by the near impact of the Celestial Arrow.

It is still a mystery on how Daisuke did manage to get this pair of goggles; it looked just the same as his first pair except for the purple lenses. Since the strange ball of energy from the beginning of his journey magically put it on him along with some clothes. Daisuke never did think much about it since it did not concern him much. Nevertheless, it is now broken and that is not much to worry about in the current situation.

_Whatever... how did I manage to do that anyway? I know I almost lost everything and yet here I am, sort of save from danger... and Nat-chan... I guess nothing bad happened this time... but I don't think I want to see a fight like this... what should I do?_ Daisuke thought, as he knew that this is not going to be an easy fight to watch.

"Nat-chan! Just don't destroy her, I think they are just misunderstanding... when we get a chance, let's just leave for now..." Daisuke commanded, hoping for the best of the situation.

"I will try..." The evolved Digimon replied.

The atmosphere seemed to be intense as the opposing forces stood on opposite ends ready to battle. Although for the dark side, there is not really a real purpose for this fight except to self-defence.

Immediately the action began when Celestial Arrow flew through the air, only Nat-chan shifted to the side and crushed the arrow with her own hands.

"There is no need to fight" Nat-chan offered as she carefully evaded the attacks of Angewomon.

"No need? Just what exactly is your objective then?" Angewomon questioned her opposite, not believing the unwillingness to fight.

"We haven't done anything to cause harm; there is no need for fighting..." Nat-chan continued to bring up, not seeing a real need to fight as Daisuke have in mind.

"Maybe not... but I certainly did not forget about last time..." Angewomon shot forth, adding much confusion to Nat-chan.

"What..." Nat-chan managed to say when seeing a Heaven's Kick fly towards her.

Acting quickly, Nat-chan blocks the attack to a certain extent and flies backward in the process. There was no question to it right now, it is either fight to survive or face doom. Daisuke could also see the condition that Angewomon seem to be in no position to listen in this scene.

The next few attacks included both kicks and hand strikes exchanging back and forth between the two figures, but no one gaining the upper hand in the even battle. Still, the fallen angel did not resemble that of the one from the past, but with its green eyes and calmness, showed the observers around the battlefield that deep down the venomous appearance was a kind spirit.

With a more willing spirit to fight, Angewomon backed off and began to summon a barrage of Celestial Arrows that flew at the direction of the fallen angel. Nat-chan avoided the arrows that she could avoid, but some did come in near proximity. In that case, she blocks them off with whatever means even if taking in some pain as she did so.

Certainly, nobody in the field expected the fight to go on like this. Yet, not even Hikari could do anything here with her Digimon acting alone. On the other hand, if either or both Digimon fall, there would be an immeasurable amount of hardship and grief to handle. To top everything off, inside the minds of most of the chosen was a huge turbulence of thought and turmoil on what to believe. They could certainly see that perhaps Angewomon's fear is driving her own actions, but what about the enemy? It did not seem like a real enemy if the fallen angel is unwilling to fight but to find peace. Then again, this opposing Digimon is Daisuke's partner...

Angewomon flew in front of her enemy, who more or less gives no resistance in this situation because of confusion. The angel put her palm on the dark angel's face, pushing her back with great force while also mentioning something.

"We are opposites; we can't exist together in this place. If you're unwilling to fight, then you won't last" Angewomon taunted, while throwing the opponent into the ground.

Meanwhile, Daisuke and Ken move to the side to avoid getting in the line of fire, but concern also gripped them as they watched the battle.

"I don't get it; I am a virus type as well, so why is Angewomon targeting Daisuke and his partner like that?" Wormmon questioned as he watched the fearful battle.

"It's probably not that... but more like a personal grudge considering the type of Digimon that Daisuke's partner is... Daisuke? Are you all right?" Ken asked as he looked over to Daisuke, who seems to be fading out and losing consciousness.

"It shouldn't turn out like this... we don't mean any harm..." Daisuke breathed out, as Nat-chan flew back again from another Heaven's Kick. "Nat-chan! Don't die on me now, it looks like we may need a little fighting to survive here, just don't overdo it..."

_Daisuke..._ Nat-chan said to herself as she got up again with renewed strength. As Angewomon came into for another attack, Nat-chan quickly grab hold on the angel's hand while her other arm transforms into a weapon that push the angel back with force.

As Angewomon flew back, she gathered another series of Celestial Arrows. Getting back up, she took aim and began firing off the arrows at once. Only this time Nat-chan has the transformed weapon in her arm and manages to brush aside some of the arrows but not without sustaining some damage for her. As Nat-chan got close to Angewomon, the angel forms a cross to repel the attack and immediately counterattacks with the Grand Cross and pushes Nat-chan back again.

"That's... not her... it certainly isn't her from that time... she's just going easy on Angewomon right now... she really desires peace" Miyako said as she noticed how the fallen angel seem to be holding back.

"It certainly does feel that way... At least I don't feel any uneasiness right now..." Hawkmon explained.

"Yeah, I think we're the erroneous ones here..." Iori added, as he could see how either Daisuke or his partner would mean any harm in this battle.

Nevertheless, Takeru and Hikari were still in their own turmoil in the situation, how weird it was that a single appearance of a Digimon and his partner quickly changed the views of their own Digimon as well as cause confusion like this. Of course, they knew that Daisuke would never do anything to cause harm, and in their hearts, they knew what to do, but perhaps the fight or the pressure did make them too uneasy to respond now.

"Daisuke..." Takeru muttered, starting to see the misunderstanding in the moment and understanding about his second Digimental. "Hikari, what do you think?"

"I don't know... but I do think that we can stop the fighting for now..." Hikari trailed off as she tried to find courage to uphold herself in the scene.

Meanwhile, Nat-chan continues to try to avoid the attacks by Angewomon, but her stamina is beginning to run dry as her movements slowed and more attacks landed on her. There did not seem to be a way to end the fight without leaving lots of damage for either side, and so Nat-chan continued to defend herself from the incessant attacks with an occasional counter that only went as far as pushing the angel back. As the struggle went on, both sides finally showed some weakness, and while weak both sides remained determined to end the fight in their own way.

With Grand Cross on, Angewomon flew downwards and broke through Nat-chan's weapon defence, then pushed the fallen angel back and turned. The turn made Nat-chan loose balance and began to get pushed into the sand of the battlefield with much pain. Nevertheless, Nat-chan persisted by lifting a single hand and grabbing the angel by the face. With this, Nat-chan takes a spin and releases her grip, effectively throwing Angewomon away. The fight still raged on when more Celestial Arrows fly towards Nat-chan, as she barely remains standing when attempting to block the attacks.

Know that her own condition is at a critical stage now; Nat-chan had to be careful and not take any more damage as she has already. It would be terrible to face separation from Daisuke again, and the miracles that brought the two together the first time would not occur so easily again. Right now, survival is most important. Even from the sidelines both Ken and Daisuke could see that.

"If this keeps up, we may have a little bit of trouble..." Ken stated.

"Yeah, but how am I suppose to escape without being chased?" Daisuke asked, knowing that if the fight did not end soon, he would end.

Still the battle could not stop with the forces clashing back and forth. Despite the weakened state of Nat-chan, she proved herself indefatigable in surviving and returned the strikes with enough power to fend off her opponent. However, as much endurance as Nat-chan stood up against, she would now occasionally find herself too weak to retaliate and it would seem like the battle would be too hard to win.

The battle situation looked grave, and by now, it did not seem like that, there is a trace of evil with the fallen angel as her gentle spirit tried to reach the fighting angel. Hikari thought for a while on the situation, she still had doubts because of how the darkness would affect her, but there certainly could be a better way to end this battle. Gathering up her courage, Hikari spoke up.

"Angewomon! We... don't have to fight anymore, she's not the enemy, she did save us..." Hikari protested as Angewomon looked at her.

"I know, but even as we talk now, there is still something that's not quite right about her..." Angewomon countered, still sensing some sort of uneasiness around the field. "You're still not comfortable around this area Hikari, we need you at safety"

At once, Angewomon flew forward, and Nat-chan had no time to react as the Grand Cross shield knocks her down again. However, Angewomon was not done, as she flew past her enemy to the back with greater speed and picked up the weakness of the fallen angel.

"This battle will not end with this endless fighting, but here I have what you are protecting, if you do not wish harm, then surrender" Angewomon commanded in authority over the situation as she held Daisuke in one hand.

_No..._ Nat-chan thought as she wondered what to do. The only way to end the heated battle is to have someone fade away... but that would be too harsh and that itself would be too much to bear for anyway in the scene.

Everyone else on the battlefield is surprised to see such a tactic used in a fight, but then again no one in the current group has ever gotten into a fight that is as deep and personal as the two Digimon here has.

_Wow, this is probably the first time anyone ever held me in place like this... hahaha! All right, enough jokes, I am not dying here!_ Daisuke thought to himself as he breathed out a laugh. _Sorry to have to do this Hikari, but it's not going to be nasty I promise..._

Daisuke let his body relax and then let the threatening blue light from his D-Terminal flow through himself, then let out a roar that radiated a temporary blue sphere around him, effectively throwing back the angel. At the same time, bits of the light reached Nat-chan, and seem to revitalise her.

"What is this?" Angewomon said in surprise at the sudden burst of power.

No words came through from the surprised observers as Nat-chan disappeared from her current location on the ground. Suddenly, a wall of darkness seems to appear behind Angewomon, but the angel turned to see that the only thing at her back is the fallen angel. Nat-chan pushed an arm against Angewomon, who is still caught up in the sudden change in the battle.

Pushing the angel back with great force, Nat-chan prepared her next counterattack with energy gathering in her palm.

"Darkness Wave..." the fallen angel processed out, blasting the energy at her target with the wave of bats and causing a flash to the battlefield.

When the flash cleared up, Tailmon appear to be on the ground, and as she tried to get up, the form of the LadyDevimon appeared in front of her, looking down at her. Fear grasped Tailmon as she looked towards her doom, one moment she seems to have victory, and how that is impossible now. Nat-chan lifted her hand up into the air, with a black mist concentrating into the hand; she got ready to strike down at Tailmon with her Poison attack.

"No..." Hikari breathed as all the other chosen children looked on with fear as to how the outcome of this would be.

"Why..." Tailmon gasped, trying to look at her enemy.

When the black mist fully concentrates on her hand, Nat-chan closed her hand, causing another flash to blind the eyes of everyone around the scene. Uncertainty grew in the hearts of everyone as they waited to see how this event would unfold. When Hikari could see clearly, she ran over to Tailmon, picking her up to check any sign of life.

"Tailmon? Are you all right?" Hikari asked, as Tailmon opened her eyes after the flash.

"Yes... that last one did nothing to me..." Tailmon replied, as a sense of relief washed over everyone in the area. Ken on the other side of the beach also felt relieved knowing that it is certainly not Daisuke's style to end battles like that.

"That's because that was only suppose to give a scare...," informed the voice of Nat-chan from the side as everyone looked to the direction of the voice.

There she was, the LadyDevimon, still in the same tone of voice from before, showing as much gentleness from her very soul. Daisuke was also beside her, as the chosen climbed on to the fallen angel and the two rose up.

"It seems like we should have never showed up at all... oh well, so sorry..." Daisuke said as he and his partner flew out of sight.

The next day came quickly as nobody really did stay out in the battlefield much longer after the fight, not after the inner conflict with himself or herself. Each chosen thought about the situation them and started to reevaluate the situation right now, perhaps a generalisation about darkness has to go. Never in the past adventures did someone see an opposing force joke around with what seems to be a coup de grâce just to reveal that it is some sort of joke.

While recovery within the individuals of the chosen, relationship restoration has yet to occur, but e-mails between Ken and Daisuke did exchange and Daisuke explains about his views in his own style: Misunderstanding, don't care it's all good.

However, Takeru did think that perhaps talking in person would be more of a proper way to get a reply rather than just have Ken relay the e-mails.

Evening approached the area of Odaiba, Daisuke along with his partner found rest in the solitude area of the soccer field where most people left already.

"Daisuke... does Hikari and Tailmon really hate us?" Nat-chan questioned in her lying down position.

"No, it's just a misunderstanding... I am sure of it, but it's probably just because of what they all faced in the past... After all, all the Digimon we ever fought from the past is all about the forces of evil and darkness..." Daisuke explained, as he looking towards the serene orange sunset that calmed his soul.

"Are we evil then?" Nat-cha questioned again, seeing as how they are using powers that is darkness.

"No... Like I said, they just misunderstand and I certainly don't blame them, having us appear like that must be hard for them..." Daisuke said in response.

"You're really nice Daisuke..." Nat-chan commented, seeing how much Daisuke obviously cares for his friends and all those around him.

"Really? Haha, maybe you're right... although most of the time during the adventures with the rest of the group, everyone just thought of me as a person who didn't care about anything..." Daisuke admitted, laughing. 

The scene quiet down after that, as the two could feel a slight breeze to relief the leftover tension from yesterday night's big event. Daisuke also took some time to remember what Jou spoke to him about the whole trust issue.

_When you're away from friends or family, trust can start to decay, and that trust may need to be rebuilt when you see them again. It may take some time because it may be that some of the conditions with people have changed since then. After all, people change all the time throughout their lives, so do not lose heart or be discouraged with your old friends..._ The words of Jou repeated itself in Daisuke's mind; surely, the older chosen knows exactly what he was talking about, the life issues seem to be clear to Daisuke now that he has seen the conflict of rushing things too quickly.

The condition and atmosphere seem to be calm as the two relaxed from the past event, and then another voice entered the scene.

"Hey! I thought I might find you here..." called the voice.

Turning around, Daisuke and Nat-chan is greeted by Takeru. The new comer sat down beside Daisuke, while exchanging a smile.

"What is it, and where is Patamon?" Daisuke asked, without any harshness in his tone of voice.

"Oh, he's at home right now... but I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday, I... we didn't..." Takeru never finished as Daisuke start to speak.

"Yes I know, never mind that. You two did not have control over your Digimon, so forget about it..." Daisuke interrupted.

Takeru smiled at the sudden interruption of Daisuke, the former leader that is so impatient to rush through a formal apology would show that any judgement on Daisuke is really just some misunderstanding.

"Although... I am really not sure if I should have showed up though..." Daisuke echoed his words from yesterday.

"What do you mean? We needed that help with that Digimon, even if an unnecessary fight did break out later" Takeru convinced his friend.

"Yes... but there is also something you should know... after the fight with Mister Ice-Ugly-Face-mon..." Daisuke began.

"IceDevimon?" Nat-chan corrected.

"Yeah yeah, whatever! As I was saying, after he went down somehow he started to talk to me... saying that it is me who keeps putting everything in danger... so maybe I really shouldn't be here..." Daisuke suggested.

"Do you actually believe that?" Takeru questioned.

"Well, I try not to... but with what just happened, it is hard not to... After all, I can't put everyone in danger just because of my existence, so I don't know anymore... maybe I shouldn't have come back... I wish I had an answer to this..." Daisuke commented.

The scene stayed quiet for a while as Takeru thought for a bit at Daisuke's position, certainly he could think of nothing to relate to him, but there is something in a scene that is very familiar to another part in the past.

"I think I may have an answer..." Takeru stated, getting Daisuke's attention.

"You do?" Daisuke asked, thinking how Takeru would actually find a solution to this problem.

"Yeah, stand up for a moment would you?" Takeru requested as he stood up himself. 

"What is it?" Daisuke asked as he faced Takeru.

A short moment of silence filled the air, and just when Daisuke could think of anything else, a fast fist pushed his face back along with his body. All this surprised Nat-chan at what happened.

"Ow!" Daisuke whined.

"Are you done yet? I know this can't be you, Daisuke... It may be true that there is a lot of hardships with you at the moment, but you never give up on anything, so what's up with this all of a sudden? I had expected you to just throw up your arms in the air and just take it easy while everything heals by itself..." Takeru said, and slowly holding out an open hand to Daisuke.

Slowly the words sank into Daisuke's mind as he thought about the idea, and that perhaps thinking and taking action just is not right for him and he is better off being impulsive and doing everything 'his way'. With that, he reached out to take hold of the helping and started to laugh lightly as he is pulled up.

"You're right on that one..." Daisuke replied, and before taking a step, Takeru shoved his hand into Daisuke, as Daisuke looked down to see a familiar object: the old pair of goggles.

"Take it; you just aren't yourself without it..." Takeru said, Daisuke smiled as he reclaimed possession of the lost goggles and put them on his head.

The friendship seem to repair itself as the even the faintest sunlight seem to be shining greatly in the friendship of the two chosen.

"Takeru!" Said the voice of Patamon as he flew into the area.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked, turning to his exhausted partner.

"I was wondering where you were! You left off without me..." Patamon complained.

"Sorry, but I just needed to find out something..." Takeru replied.

Before another phase of conversations could start in the area, a large explosion of light caught the attention of everyone as they looked towards a part of the city that seems to be in some sort of disorder.

Quickly running towards the area of the light with their partners, Daisuke and Takeru wondered what could happen this time. Arriving at the location, the first thing that the two noticed is a completely exhausted Ophanimon, supposedly after dealing with a battle, and the next thing across the area is Hikari, Ken, Miyako, and Iori with their partners. 

"Hey! What happened here?" Daisuke asked the angel-warrior as she straightened up.

"Are you all chosen children?" The teal-warrior asked.

"Yes we are what is it?" Takeru questioned.

"We have little time to talk at the moment, recently I have just found out that besides just this world, there is an evil force in the Digital World, I am sorry this is so sudden, but I must ask of you to travel to the Digital World and handle things from the other side in order to stabilise the situation over there. Go now, I shall attempt to contact you later, for now all of you must work together..." Ophanimon explained as she lifted up her spear and activated a warp for the chosen children to the Digital World.

"Wait! What are we exactly looking for?" Questioned Miyako, as the warp seems to lift everyone to the Digital World.

"The answer will come soon enough, right now hurry! Or all will be lost..." Ophanimon concluded as the group of six with their partners flew into the warp to the Digital World.

* * *

In carry out this chapter, many things were put into consideration and I must say that it is not the easiest chapter to produce, but I just hope that maybe everything is not OOC and crazy after this chapter.


	13. Chapter 12

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Trial**

While the trip into the Digital World is smooth and fast, the landing part certainly does not seem as pleasant. First off, the group of Chosen Children along with their Digimon flew through a funny tube with green-and-blue mixture in the background, but just as the end of this "tunnel", a bright light seem to engulf the group and send them flying in different directions.

Apparently, the place of landing just has to be the desert with a scorching sun at top. The place of landing happens to be a flat place with some hills surrounding the area. From the looks of this place, west and east direction looks like rocky dead-ends, while south leads into the endless desert and north seems to show a strange shape rising out of the ground.

Luckily, for everyone, they did land all in the same spot, even though a pyramid of Kids and Digimon did form from their rough landing.

"Oww... it's always me..." Daisuke muttered at the bottom of the pyramid as everyone start to get off one-by-one.

It did not take long for everyone to organise and orient themselves in the Digital World, but in the middle of all this chaos, Daisuke is certainly going to be on the receiving end of all the questions. Of course, what's most annoying to Daisuke at this moment is probably the answering of the questions, and so there is quite a conflict.

"Hey Daisuke, what exactly did happen last time you were here? And... what was that all about back at home?" Ken inquired, as Daisuke looks to the horizon and shifting his clothing around to fit him better.

"Well, it's a much too long story to explain in detail, so I will be brief," Daisuke replied, as he tried to sum up all the events of his Digital World adventures in the past months in one sentence. "SoIfirststartedoutinthisdarkplaceandeventshappenedtheresothenIamhereintheDigitalWorldandthenmorethingshappenedandthenIambacktohome."

The response only gave way to confusion in the whole group as they tried to interpret what Daisuke began to say.

"Umm, could you repeat that in a more detailed and slower tone of voice please?" Takeru inquired.

Daisuke's plunged down from looking up and onto the floor, almost as if he is choking on an apple. "That's too much trouble for me... so no... Well, that in itself is too much to explain I suppose... but... I think it would be of our best interest to just bring everything to safety first, and then settle all these small issues we may have. Honestly though, there's no need to think that I am insane or evil... after all, I am much more than just insane, though don't know much about being evil... but you all get the idea, let's move onward in this direction!" Daisuke finished, walking towards the southwards of the group.

Naturally, it is safe to assume that Daisuke means well and has no harm despite the ominous appearance. Still, at least the Daisuke that everyone knew is clearly shown here. Like the fast-talking as well as the annoying attitude tells anybody that this is Daisuke, and especially going the wrong way from the current position.

Obviously, everyone else would go north from where they are as they all see a strange edifice in the north direction, while Daisuke's faulty-as-always path leads into the endless desert. At the same time, Takeru agrees to bring Daisuke back while the rest of the group went ahead first. Before Daisuke went too far, he felt a tug on his first coat, and turning back to see Takeru.

"What?" Daisuke questioned.

"Look Daisuke, I know that you're trying to make the best of this situation as well as assuring everybody, but making a fool out of yourself isn't going to help..." Takeru informed with a smile.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Daisuke questioned, still not knowing his wrong direction.

""Daisuke... everybody can see that there is some sort of structure north, so that would be our first clue on what to do, instead of your faulty way into the endless desert, don't you think? You've got to look 

around and see the possibilities first before jumping into things... did you ever thought about that?" Takeru asked.

"Uhh... well, of course! I am quite sure this is the right wa--" Daisuke finished prematurely as he tried to keep walking south when Takeru pulled him back into the right direction.

"Right... stubborn as always, just admit you're wrong..." Takeru suggested, ignoring Daisuke's struggle to break free.

"I am telling you! I am correct!" Daisuke pleaded, still not wanting to admit his mistake.

Takeru breathed a sigh, Daisuke really is too stubborn. "You're the most stubborn person I've ever met..." Takeru muttered.

"Good!" Daisuke replied.

As Takeru and Daisuke slowly catches up with the rest of the group and their Digimon, much silent laughter spread out throughout the Digimon and their partners at Daisuke's stubborn pathway. One would think about how Daisuke managed to survive nearly a year away from home, or maybe that it is because of Daisuke's stubborn ways that made his trip back home to be around a year.

"Oh well, the dumb will always stay dumb..." Miyako commented.

"I'll pretend that I did not hear that..." Daisuke said, kind of exhausted because of his black clothing disadvantage in the desert environment.

"Miyako, there's no need for such comments is there?" Questioned Hawkmon, seeing the unnecessary waste of energy wasted.

Meanwhile, Iori and Armadimon look onto the situation with their own evaluations.

"Ok, so Daisuke has spoken, and it is obviously he's just as he is from the years back, so there's no doubt there anymore... but right now it is just about finding a place back into the group after the time away..." Iori analysed.

"Well, as long as everybody is happy, right?" Armadimon asked, seeing that there doesn't seem to be real friction in the group as of current.

"Yeah, I suppose it was just a foolish idea to actually doubt someone who is..." Iori tried to finish, thinking up on a word to describe Daisuke.

"Stupid?" Armadimon suggested, knowing Iori might use a word like that, except maybe a longer and more complex equivalent.

"Well, no... I wouldn't be that harsh... more like around silly or frivolous..." Iori responded, knowing full well that Armadimon had the right idea, but not going as far as using a word like "stupid" to describe his friend.

At the same time, Tailmon tries to follow Nat-chan, and while the BlackTailmon is walking at a brisk pace, tiredness is building due to the colour disadvantage in the environment much like her partner.

Further back is Hikari and Takeru who seem to breathe in peace as everybody currently present can at least act as a whole rather than having doubts about each other, as well as Ken happy to see his friend be his actual self despite the appearance due to experiences.

Walking along the desert certainly is not one of the most pleasant things that anyone would like to do, but the bumpy structure-like shape sticking out is the only clue, and the distance between them and the structure is now clearer. After some more time pass by along more travelling the object of interest seems to be absolutely clear as well as an evil aura that seemed to be surrounding it.

Of course, this actually seems to be a surprise, because the object is now seen to be a pile of broken rocks put back together. In fact, the shape and size of the rocks seem familiar.

"What? This... seems to be..." Ken muttered surprise to see this still existing.

"Your base from long ago... so who put it back together?" Daisuke joined in, also surprise to see the massive structure still standing.

As surprised as the rest of the group were, there was no time to be surprised any longer, whatever put the scraps of the base of the Digimon Kaiser has summoned three Airdramon from above and has began to attack.

With the air opposition, Hikari and Takeru evolved their Digimon with Light and Hope Digimentals into Nefertimon and Pegasmon.

"Well, this should not be too much trouble..." Pegasmon said, having fought similar battles before. Immediately he rained Shooting Stars down on the enemy to cause confusion, and Nefertimon follows up with a Rosetta Stone to disable to the approaching attackers.

"Strange, they seemed so powerful by the dark energies flowing through them, but they just fade away..." Nefertimon noted.

However, before relief came, a sudden fog of darkness appeared in the sky above everyone, and a strong force of wind pushing from above to the sand floor. Nefertimon and Pegasmon crashed down after the fog appeared and reverted back to Tailmon and Patamon.

"Patamon! You ok there?" Takeru asked, while Hikari asked about the same thing to Tailmon.

"Yes, we're fine... but it's strange... what is that?" Patamon questioned.

"Something's happening, and I don't like it" Tailmon added, and also starting to feel a little dizzy.

Everyone gathered with worry and wondered what the force that suddenly appears over them could be. Just a few mere seconds later, they found out. Tailmon collapsed, and then followed by Patamon and later Hawkmon, Armadimon, Wormmon and even Nat-chan.

"What's happening? The Digimon are..." Iori muttered, before crashing down himself and soon his other human comrades doing so as well.

"Iori! Takeru! Hikari! Miyako! Ken!" Daisuke yelled as he sees them collapse, before falling down to one knee.

_Ugh! What is happening? Who is...?_ Daisuke thought over as he felt something from the direction of the ruin base. Looking up, Daisuke saw a strange orb with a very unpleasant dark blue power that seems to be powering the dark fog and now it is summoning another dark Digimon as a large black patch appears on the ground in front on him. A Monochromon appears from the black warp, but darker than the normal type, one could probably even label this variation of Monochromon as a virus too.

_Great, can't move due to that thing... and now this... This is evil... very evil! Move!_ Daisuke said to himself as he struggles to move himself, even though the force from above prevents him from doing so. I will not let it end here, just...

Unknown to Daisuke is a few beams firing off from the far distance, and although he could hear them he would not be able to escape and stay stuck and maybe waiting for his doom to come. Only that the beams went over Daisuke from behind and smashed directly into the orb, and making it fall into pieces. Immediately the pressure disappears on Daisuke, who breathe only slightly until the Monochromon roared at him. Daisuke stands up, but still knowing nothing could be done as the Digimon in front of him almost is about to attack, he braces himself and hopes for a miracle.

Almost as if Daisuke did his wish, another round of beams firing came along with a big crunch sound afterwards. Hearing a big collapsing sound, Daisuke became sure that it was safe, but by who? Opening 

his eyes, Daisuke could see a large green cactus type Digimon with red boxing gloves, and a very mocking voice behind him say something.

"So Daisuke is really is here, and he's weak too!" Said a voice that seems to resemble Gumimon.

Turning around, Daisuke immediately responded without looking who was there first.

"I'd recognise that voice anywhere! And I am sure V-mon would too if he was here! So where's Wallace?" Daisuke demanded to the Galgomon standing there.

"Right here Daisuke" Responded a voice from in front of him with the cactus Digimon.

Finally taking a careful scan of the area in front of him, Daisuke sees Togemon, Mimi and Wallace.

"Heh, the timing couldn't be any more perfect you guys... guess you really did get those secret emergency e-mails huh..." Daisuke remembered as he thought back to how he secretly e-mailed his two companions about his whole trip some time after coming back to tell them of the situation as well as this current trip and his destination as he went the wrong way southwards earlier. Certainly being prepared ahead of time is not Daisuke's style, and just because he is stubborn enough to actually hide it, he does it in a secret kind of way.

"We got here as fast as we can, but it looks like that you handled everything just fine didn't you?" Wallace asked, smiling at Daisuke's state.

"Well anyway, why don't we get everyone to safety first? It looks like you could all use some rest" Mimi said, looking at all the Digimon and people that lay on the ground.

It took a long time to get everyone to somewhere safe and away from the base, and after some searching, a safe place that is neither too far or too near the base is found. Of course, while some of the 

resting took place, Mimi and Wallace caught up on what Daisuke has been doing as well as all that's happened at Odaiba.

"I see, so it must have been rough on you..." Wallace said, thinking about the whole situation.

"Yeah, but don't worry too much about it. Right now let's just focus on getting everything back on track and it will be all good," Daisuke replied. "Oh? Say, Mimi, what are you doing?"

Mimi was over where Nat-chan rested and gave her response when turning around. "Oh nothing, I just thought that Nat-chan looks so adorable when she's sleeping, but... she also look like she can be the lazy type, I think that's influence by somebody here..." Mimi noted.

"Ugh! Just forget about that... Everything's been really hard lately..." Daisuke replied.

After the nice long respite, everyone regains consciousness and to their surprise to see Mimi and Wallace there, but were grateful for the help. Time seem to move differently from earth time again, as it was about evening time and when the Chosen went to the Digital World, it was still afternoon while their time was evening.

"Well, it looks like we should get all this done before night time comes down here, because it should already be night time back at home" Daisuke noted, starting to move again. Only that Hawkmon flew into his way.

"Jumping into action without a plan again, once is ok, but not twice" the flying Digimon informed.

"Right, we need a plan to get by the defences or we'll always end up like how we were..." Iori said.

"Should someone distract the enemy while some of us go into solve the problem?" Hikari suggested.

"Too risky, someone will have a high risk of getting into trouble" Daisuke explained.

"Perhaps we can look around and find a weak spot?" Tailmon explained.

"Yeah, and then we can slip past or fly over the defences" Patamon added.

"Takes too much time, remember, we're probably already late going home so we need to do this quick" Daisuke refuted.

"So then based on what we know about them already, we fight through the defences?" Wallace brings up.

"Maybe, but we'll exhaust too much strength that way" Daisuke explained again.

"Well, what do you have in mind, Daisuke?" Ken asked, seeing no solutions but invalidating from him.

"Hmm, I was thinking... if it takes awhile for us fall down against the force, we could have Mimi and Wallace support from the back with destroying a pathway for the rest of us. That way, we'll have an escape route when needed as well as possible rescue if something does go wrong inside that thing..." Daisuke explained.

"Wow, Daisuke actually thinks!? Amazing!" Terriermon's voice said.

Daisuke balled up a fist, was it so wrong for him to grow up a little and actually think? Did it really seem so out of character for him to think?

_That's going a bit too far... I didn't spend a year outside from home for no reason... I wonder if all Terriermons are like this? Wallace's Terriermon is not much different than Jenrya's from the manga I read..._ Daisuke thought, seeing some similarities between two different universes.

"Well whatever, if there is nothing wrong with this plan, and then let's really go before it's too late..." Daisuke said, facing the base.

"Ok, I don't see anything wrong here, so I guess we could try this..." Ken agreed, seeing Daisuke's solution to be actually well-thought for once.

In that situation, there were no room for argument s on the decision, as time is short and there is not another alternative. As the group of six with their Digimon got ready, Mimi and Wallace with Galgomon and Togemon watched for any more orbs flying in the air while the six rushed towards the base.

Indeed more opposition did rise against the six, but thanks to their background support, they managed to evade most of the attacks and even sneak in the base while Mimi and Wallace retreats, ensuring that there would be a safe way for their friends when the problem is solved.

Inside the ruin base of the Digimon Kaiser, everything looks familiar, but the main question of why the base is back up again is the main mystery.

"Strange walking through here again, but why is this place up again?" Daisuke asked, remembering the many memories of the place.

"Perhaps because of these strange powers the base is put back together..." Ken tried to reason, breathing a bit afterwards.

"Hey Ken, are you sure everything is all right?" Daisuke questioned as Ken did not look so great.

"I think I am fine, but not only does this place reminds me of the horrible times, but the powers just seem inviting" Ken replied.

Takeru turned to Hikari, she was not much better in this environment; clearly the darkness is not very friendly to all.

"Maybe we should get to the centre, that may be where the problem is," Patamon suggested, not feeling the best in this area knowing that his partner does not like the outlook of the place either.

"Ok then, let's go directly there!" Nat-chan said in response, and clawing through the wall with ease, which causes the wall to dissolve into tiny dark pieces.

The quick dissolving of the wall cause Ken and Hikari to react in defence, the powers in this place along with what reformed the base is unpleasant in every way possible. Daisuke could now see that the base itself has not really been rebuilt, but rather created by some sort of power as a way to mock everyone.

"Well, if you guys can't handle it, then we won't force you to come along with us..." Daisuke informed his two allies, knowing the best for them.

"No, it's all right, it will be too dangerous to stay here anyway," Hikari replied.

"Fine, now let's do this! The sooner we get this done, the faster we can go home and sleep!" Daisuke said entering the shattered wall that Nat-chan made with everyone else agreeing and following.

While the inside of the base seems to be clear of any Digimon, the maze through the base seems to be different than before. The layers seem to alternate between a rock-ground area to the machinery parts. However, the atmosphere remained the same: dark and cold throughout with very grim looking walls all throughout this maze.

Nevertheless, the group of six continues on their way through the walls when possible, even though each step seems grimmer than the last. One thing for sure though, everyone operated as a team to effectively explore the endless straight pathways that seem to go forever, with only friendship and perseverance keeping their spirits up, they head downwards when they finally found a hidden stairway.

"This trip is longer than expected, and this growing cold feeling is just too unpleasant for my liking" Miyako said, feeling a bit cold at the lower levels of this building.

"At least we're closer to the centre it seems," Armadimon noted.

"Right too late to turn back, and best of all, we didn't spend too much time, so more time to sleep when we get back!" Daisuke said in a pleased tone of voice, then turning over to see his two friends. "Everything all right up until here?"

"Yes, I think we're managing pretty good at the moment," Ken replied

"Hey look, this wall seems hollow" Wormmon observed at the strange wall to the left of this pathway.

"Well, let's check it out!" Nat-chan said, smashing the wall and revealing a lift.

"What's this? Why would this be behind a wall in the middle of nowhere?" Takeru asked, seeing that this lift seemed to be a square platform with controls that are operational. Everybody also followed in onto the platform, wondering what could be in here.

"No clue, but if it's here, why not use it?" Daisuke suggested as he immediately starts to mash the buttons on the control panel, which causes the lift to start-up and fly downwards at a high speed. This caused a surprised reaction as nobody expected the lift to go down at such a high speed.

"Hey Daisuke! Try to give us a warning before doing anything crazy next time..." Iori suggested, recovering from his fall.

"Oh, sorry..." Daisuke replied, knowing that he has done it again.

Once down at the bottom, the group of six could see that they are in a cylinder shaped room and also a small tunnel that leads to something in the far distance. Wasting no more time in the unpleasant place, they all pushed forward on the path, it would seem like they found their way out of the maze and finally found their destination.

However, as they moved forward their target became clearer: A decayed Tree with a dark evil-blue light leaking out from it.

"I don't like the sight of that all..." Hikari said, with the evil light that seemed to draw the group nearer.

"The main problem here is how we deal with it, as it would be suicide to go near that thing..." Hawkmon observed.

"This place is too tight for any evolving to occur, so we're out of luck" Iori informed, looking around at the tight tunnel they were in.

Without a solution to deal with the problem, the six with their Digimon partners slowly inch towards the source, until the evil-blue rays started to reach out at them.

"Ok, we're here... so what not? I don't like this one bit..." Takeru uttered, the light was almost blinding.

"Maybe we should have thought of something before having come this close..." Daisuke said, almost covering his eyes from the blinding evil-light.

It was then, when the decayed tree seems to pulse and a sudden change of force seems to pull everyone towards it, and panic set in, as everyone is unable to move.

"Is this a trap...?" Miyako yelled out, panicking and trying to fight against the force that is pulling them all in.

_What is this? Somehow seems familiar... well, my friends are in danger, so I need to think of something quick!_ Daisuke quickly thought.

"We don't have much time, we'll need to take a chance and maybe evolve to get out of here!" Iori suggested, seeing the fear and panic that settled into the group.

_I'm not giving up! I never do!_ Daisuke thought again, and picking out his special D-3 and pointed at the decayed tree.

"Nonsense! We must win!" Daisuke said, as the D-3 flashed and shot a white beam that disrupted the tree as well as dissolving the tree. Afterwards, as Daisuke took a single breathe, the whole area around he and his friends seem to disappear instantly, bringing them back into the desert area around the same time.

"Are we done? Yes, we're done! We can go home and sleep now!" Daisuke said as he saw the victory at this place.

"Wow, whatever that was, I sure don't want to go through again, Wormmon noted, tired from actually pulling himself away during the vacuum.

"It's over..." Daisuke said to himself again as his allies as took the time to relax from the short, but long trip.

"Not quite..." Called a voice behind, which got the attention of everyone.

Turning around, Daisuke knew there would be further troubles again, and even with just the voice he could guess that it is Wallace.

"What is it now?" Daisuke groaned.

"It seems like you were all tricked... I wondered about this 'Ophanimon' you speak about, and it would seem like it was all a big joke. See, Mimi went back to our world to check around specifically in Odaiba and it would seem like that the darkness there is spreading rapidly! What's more, it seems like that there was really no Ophanimon at all, just a shell..." Wallace explained.

"What do you mean?" Daisuke asked.

"You see, all this time... the 'Ophanimon' is merely a shell of the former Digimon, Ophanimon really disappeared long ago even before appearing in our world. Inside that shell right now... is the one you call 'Demon'" Wallace finished.

_What!?_

* * *

So it just happened that there was nothing to work with during the time away, but at least now I am back to dealing with this. Right, so perhaps readers may have also noticed the decline in quality, so I really apologised as there really isn't much to do about it. Also, if there is something in this chapter that does not seem to make sense because of something from a previous chapter, then please kindly point that out so I can go and fix that up. Hopefully it will pick up again next chapter or so, until then enjoy! Once again I apologise for the long wait as well as the sloppiness of all this.

I am also going to take this opportunity to say that the story is drawing to its end. Yes, there should be about one or two more chapters following this one and an Epliogue-type of thing to end it. Now, this is not because of ideas running out from the time away, but rather because it seemed that this chapter came out really well (or really bad). I just figured that perhaps this should be wrapped up before I drag it on for too long.


	14. Chapter 13

* * *

**Chapter 13: The Dark Prison, Part 1**

Although there was a bit of a shock to hear Demon back again, there was no time for hesitation. It was obvious to everyone that Demon, using whatever method to take form of Ophanimon or take over the angel, had deceived them with duplicity. The plan to come to the Digital World to remove the forces here was simply to send more power back to earth and further empower the notorious Demon.

"We've been tricked..." Daisuke muttered as he realised why that weird Ophanimon had been so quick to send everyone to the Digital World.

"I know, but this is not the time to feel sorry for ourselves, Demon is going to destroy everything if we don't act quickly," Wallace continues on, knowing that the battle has already begun back on earth and Odaiba at that.

"Is it really bad back home right now?" Ken asked.

"We are don't know for now, but Mimi is currently there along with everyone else. We should hurry back for now, no telling what Demon could do while having the extra surge of power. Anyway, just follow me, I know the quickest way back" Wallace finishes while leading the quickest way out of the Digital World.

The dark sky that sleeps on top of Odaiba has its peace broken by a sudden change in power. A ripple causes the atmosphere to break into uneasiness as a certain figure emerges from the rip. Though the appearance is that of Ophanimon, Demon resides within this shell and is just about to begin the master plan for destruction or whatever wants to fill the sadistic needs of this Digimon.

"So... looks like step one of my plan is a success... Still, the remaining chosen ones that are here proved to be a problem... Well, that's no matter now, I have the extra power now, so might as well get started..." Demon muttered, thinking about the success in his deception plan. Since attacking too soon caused resistance like some of the present Chosen Children to strike back.

Demon concentrated his energy while in the sky, and emitted a dark aura that spread quickly over Odaiba. The dark clouds opened, and with Demon's powers in control of the area, many Digimon from Demon's domain began to pour out. Soon, the sky is infested with Demon's minions as well as other who desire destruction.

"From the beginning I planned this... Since Apokarimon's defeat, it was clear to everyone that there would be much planning and preparation in order to win... I remember the last time I was here few years ago... on that survey trip to see how they were and even then, it was easy to lure them out using that one child with the dark spore... and now I have figured them out completely. Everyone, begin the feast! No evolutions can take place as long as my powers are in place," Demon commanded as his forces roared in a victorious force from behind.

Not too far off from the city of Odaiba is a group of children, who are nearly back in time to stop Demon. However, the evil Digimon knew of their coming and have already something in advance for the unsuspecting children.

"As expected, they join forces in times like this to defeat their foes, not a bad strategy... but I know what to do. Even in this body, I still have enough power to stop them," Demon said underneath his Ophanimon shell.

With a simple wave of a finger, the energies around the sky seem to redirect and focus at one point, making the part of the sky vulnerable to an opening. Meanwhile, the small group returning from the Digital World continue their way through the warp, hoping to get back in time to save their hometown. Just as the chosen children were about to emerge from their warp back to their world, their destination they wanted to go to seemed to be blocked off. Although stuck, they did find an alternative way to go back, but not the way they wanted to land...

As Demon noticed the unsuspecting group of children exiting from the special passageway he created, he could only smile behind his outer shell. The children he is dealing with is too predictable. Everyone jumped out of the passage; they noticed they were in mid-air, which put them into a lot of fear. Before anyone could say anything, a sudden shock of black energies held them suspended in mid-air.

"What the!" Takeru barely managed to say, trying to break free of the hold as his friends attempted to do the same.

With some persistency the task is easily done, but only because this is intended. As soon as the shock of energies breakdown altogether, a shockwave began in the middle of everybody. This burst of energy sends the group is all different directions, separating their powers as a team. While Demon watches his plan coalesce, he gives out a big inner laugh, as his minions from behind began their invasion from the dark sky. Conquering the world is not hard; the real hard part is the planning, which Demon has done through previous visits.

"Now... with all of them separated, I can eliminate them one at a time without a big threat," Demon concluded, moving about in mid-air as he looks for his first victim from this group.

The overall condition of the whole area is one filled with horror and panic. People poured out of their homes and into the street, where they proceeded to run away from the eminent danger of the legion of Digimon attacking. Harmony is broken, and chaos seems to be everywhere without any hope. In a short time, many areas of the Odaiba region is turned into a wasteland, fires at certain places or ruined city places. In addition, the darkness above also seems to be reflected off the land now, making Odaiba a place of dread and disaster.

Daisuke slowly gets up from the horrifying shock as he notices Nat-chan do the same. Not so far away in Wallace and Terriermon, who seem to be in pain from the landing. Their location seem to be a small place with a series of roads ahead of them along with buildings in between, and of course the overhead shining darkness over the entire place.

_One trick after the other... we're in serious trouble now... _Daisuke thought, knowing that all the series of event is a part of a plan by Demon to destroy everyone. _Though this is getting a little weird... it almost seems like the Devas has began their invasion or something... Next thing I know, it'll be Digimon Frontier on TV just like the Tamers watch all the time._

As Wallace regains his consciousness along with Terriermon, they began to think of a plan of counter against Demon.

"Say, how did you know it was him that took over Ophanimon anyway?" Daisuke asked.

"Well, it started when Jyou told Mimi that you were back into his world after your absence, and so the two of us decided to come here. Upon arriving we saw the blast of energy, where you guys were supposedly warped to the Digital World, but afterwards we saw a dark Digimon go to Ophanimon in a servant kind of fashion, and from their conversation, Demon himself explained that using some sort of evil plan he managed to infest his data into another Digimon in order to come back out from his world. If everything did go as planned, then he should have already got some of us..." Wallace explained, fearing the worst from the situation of the town.

"You mean..." Daisuke wanted to ask, afraid to know the response.

"Yeah, Taichi, Jyou, and all the others... probably already defeated or at captured by him. I've talked to some of your friends and I know that their partners can't evolve in this environment, so while you were all away Demon took that chance to get them out of the way..." Wallace continued, "But I am sure they're still around, as long as they are held hostage, Demon could just use them as hostages and lure us out, so as long as we think of something, we could get out of this one..."

"Ok, Let' try to think of something then..." Daisuke replied before the two pairs made their way out of sight.

Only a few steps out of the dark clouds over Odaiba did they notice that Demon has been over floating over them all the time and listening in on them. As Ophanimon, the outside looks the same, but the aura as well as colours flowing through the Digimon made it obvious that Demon's personality is inside.

"Oh, you again..." Daisuke groaned, already he was caught trying as he tried to resist the invasion.

"Yes, it is me again... so you know all about me now I suppose... Strange though, I'd thought you figured me the first time around..." Demon mocked.

Immediately the thought came back to Daisuke about their first meeting. Daisuke remembered. The first time they met, Daisuke did indeed call Ophanimon a guy. In truth, Ophanimon did act uneasy because it was Demon all along.

"That was just a mistake... but why are you in a girl's body anyway, are a pervert!?" Daisuke countered.

"Ummm, uh... no..." Demon replied.

"Right, that took you a long time to reply... Pervert! Demon is a pervert!" Daisuke accused.

_Daisuke... you..._ Wallace thought as he looked over to Daisuke.

"S-SILENCE!" Demon roared. "Anyway, I suppose that doesn't matter anymore, your powers seem different from all your friends so this is why I've separated you. Now I can eliminate you first without anyone interfering."

"Not so quick, you've got four of us to deal with!" Terriermon said, stepping in front confidently.

"And what do you plan to do? You can't evolve in this environment either! You'll be no more than a mere bug, out of my way!" Demon replied, kicking the small Digimon out of the way.

"Terriermon!" Wallace called after seeing his partner fly quite a distance.

Demon turned to Daisuke then, without any other interference to continue his attack. "Now, with that out of the way, let's continue..." Demon finished, raising the Shining Spear in Ophanimon's hand and striking downwards.

Time did not seem to be present with Daisuke, no time to react or think. As the weapon came down on him, a big clashing sound echoes from his location as Daisuke pop open his eyes again to see a blue sphere around himself and his partner.

Demon looks at the sphere in surprise at how it got there and why it was there. "What! Impossible, what is this...?" Demon faded, as he realised that the weapon is stuck and the force that was intended for his 

attack is now reflected back at him. Seeing the opening, Nat-chan acted immediately and leaped upwards to effectively scratch upwards at Demon, who flew backwards and into a black warp while in agony.

_How did that happen? Oh, wait..._ Daisuke thought, as he went through his pockets to find his D-Terminal with the unknown and strange Digimental glowing. _What a weird power this thing is why can't it be normal and used for evolution instead?_

After escaping the close encounter, Demon slowly stands up, trying not to fall down with the pain. Though the attack did not really cause a great deal of damage, it did get Demon to wonder about the boy and his Digimon.

"I've never encountered anyone like that before... well, that's fine, I will just pick off his friends one by one and leave him for last," Demon planned as he slowly ripped through the fabric of space from his own little dimension-area and back into Odaiba.

Meanwhile, Wallace and Daisuke quickly find a place to hide away from sight while planning what to do next.

"So much for a vacation, this really something else" Wallace said, noticing the grim situation.

"Yeah, my vacation too..." Daisuke added.

"Really? I think you've been on vacation for a whole year with that adventure..." Wallace teased.

"Oh, you don't know what exactly I had to go through, it was hardly a vacation... Anyway, what should we do right now? We need to get back with the others"

"I am not sure how we should do that, Demon seems to keep a close watch over all of us when he separated us, so we should be really careful when trying to find the others..." Wallace finished as he looked towards the city that is now void of human life.

_This must be a dream come true for Daisuke, Digimon are realising all over the place, now all he needs is one of those D-Arcs along with some cards..._ _He should be happy, he has always wanted to be this 'Tamer' from that manga he reads... _Nat-chan mused as she wondered about the current turn of events.

While the children thought up their plan, a figure from far off seems to catch their attention, but it was too far to know who or what it was.

Further off, in another section of the town where shadows live is a battlefield as various Digimon, most Demon's minions, rampaging through the city. Most of the populace either have run away from the area or resisted the invasion with no success.

Somewhere further off from this chaos is a small park, where Patamon urges Takeru to wake up. To their right and their left is streets going up as well as rubble everywhere, and collapsed trees in this park even.

"Takeru! Wake up!" Patamon urged another time, as the unconscious child finally began to wake up.

"Sorry, but what's going right now?" Takeru asked as he scanned the area to notice that it was very quiet.

"We've been separated from the others..." Patamon explained.

"Oh right, I remember now. After that shock we all flew in different directions... we've got to get back somehow,"

Looking around, the quietness provided some safety, but not much compared to the situation in the whole area. Takeru and Patamon quietly moved left of the park, avoiding any trees or bushes, as they too, were dark like the sky. The road in front of the two seemed to be safe, and Takeru peeked at both sides to make sure that the area is clear. The pair moved out onto the road, and the noise around them suddenly exploded.

The sky roared and what seemed like pillars rained down on Patamon and Takeru's location. Immediately, they began to jump around to avoid the attacks.

"Hey, what is that!?" Takeru asked looking up in horror as a series of dark lights came down on the area.

"Over here!" Called a voice from further away, and without any thought, the two ran towards the voice's source from an alley.

Once the two were inside, they noticed the area was sort of like a refuge area with many other children as well as their Digimon. As Takeru and Patamon looked around, hand reached out to Takeru, and turning around, he saw Hikari.

"Hikari!" Takeru said in relief.

"Looks like we got lucky, the others went far off, but I guess you're lucky I saw you just now" Hikari explained.

"Yeah, I didn't know that Demon's work could go as far as this, we were only gone for a little while..."

"Yes, but it looks like he planned this from the beginning, so we're at a disadvantage,"

"So how are we going to do this? We got ambushed as well as separated,"

"Tailmon is currently looking around the area for some way to get back to the others, but we'll just have to wait for now... And as for everyone here... they are just trying to get some sleep, so we'd just have to keep quiet for now"

Sitting down, Takeru found a comfortable spot along with Patamon and Hikari, but they all knew that the rest is nothing compared an actual night's rest. There is not going to be Special Forces from outside the world to come and liberate this small piece of land. At least not right now anyway. Even worse is that falling asleep could mean the end here, as normally everyone would be inside their homes and sleeping, but today was different. Even in the dead of the night, dread continued to dwell inside them.

At another location further away are Iori and Miyako, who both have troubles trying to get around since there were either traps or some Digimon mowing everything down in its path. In front of them is a ruined part of the city with only one building that is standing, but still in pieces.

"So how are we going to get back with everyone else? This place is too dangerous," Miyako noted, hoping that there would be nothing out to specifically hunt for them.

"We've fallen for a trap that was really well planned out... our usual strategies won't work out since we're separated..." Iori said, knowing the odds are against them.

"I just hope that maybe we could get some sleep, this is tiring..." Armadimon complained.

"That's another thing, we're exhausted as well from the previous adventure that we don't even have time for a respite before this invasion, and we are at a serious disadvantage. So we'll probably have to rely on sneaking through the enemy lines to rendezvous with our friends..." Iori explained.

"Hawkmon! Evolve right now; we need to get back to the others as quickly as possible!" Miyako demanded.

"What? I can't do that, look at the sky, we'll crash down in no time," Hawkmon said in defence.

"I don't think we can even evolve in this kind of condition, this whole field that is set up with the same dark powers that we've been dealing with," Iori noted.

"Well, so much for that idea... So what can we do?" Miyako asked.

"We wait, and look for a good opening and then we try to sneak through, we don't want to waste our strength that is limited already," Iori said, as he observed ahead of them to notice a chaotic pattern of rubble as well as traps.

Daisuke breathed a sigh of relief as he looked to see that the BlackGrowmon is defeated. "Finally! That was exhausting!"

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to confront him head on..." Wallace said, smiling to Daisuke.

"Yeah, but was I suppose to know that he is much stronger than the one I read about? Anyway, perhaps we could try to sneak around them next time, but we still need to get to where Demon might be hiding soon," Daisuke reasoned.

"Perhaps I can help with that," Offered a voice from the right.

Turning to the right direction, Daisuke and Wallace sees Ken and Wormmon peeking out from their hiding place.

"Oh wow Ken! You're still alive!" Daisuke said.

_Still alive? Is that how you greet your friends, Daisuke? _Wallace thought as he laughed in his mind at how Daisuke could act in such a manner towards all his friends.

"Well, yes... I am well, Daisuke... but right now we have something much more important to do, right?" Ken replied, ignoring the 'still alive' comment.

"Yes, we were just thinking that if we are able to find Demon's hiding place, we could draw him out. Once happens, his powers will obviously fly from one end of the place to another, and our friends should have no problems with finding us then..." Daisuke explained while looked at him with disbelief.

"Are you sure that would work? Demon might be able to destroy us before our friends even come near to our location..." Ken asked, then looked over to Wallace, who put up his hands and put up a face that said 'I can't change his crazy and stubborn mind'

"Well, there must be some other way that's safer..." Ken thought.

"We've always risked these kinds of things in the past, and it's not like we'll fight him alone..." Wormmon reasoned to Ken.

"And if we run into trouble, we'll feed Daisuke to Demon" Terriermon added, as Daisuke looked to the dog-bunny with a pinch of annoyance.

"Hey!" Daisuke complained.

"So moving on..." Wallace began, ignoring the comments earlier, "I guess we'll just have to use that one crazy suggestion since we don't have that much time... just don't get us killed, Daisuke"

"Don't worry, I won't!" Daisuke responded.

"I guess we'll just have to avoid fights as much as possible," Ken finished as he reluctantly agreed.

"Yeah, no more taking everything by brute force and going head-on towards them, ok?" Wallace said to Daisuke.

"Yes I know, we'll only fight to get through if we have to, I am really tired anyway..." Daisuke complained.

Afterwards, Ken explains the basic layout of the area as well as the easiest way to get to the centre, where Demon might be hiding out.

Without further delay, the group of six goes off to the sides of their current location, sneaking into a secret passage that is unseen by the invasion Digimon. Heading through the passage and into the next area where there is a few Darktyrannomon searching for prey. Seeing as how the giant monsters may be strong, but not really smart, the three decided to play an old trick as they notice a garden-type area nearby.

At once, six bushes come out into the opening, walking across the street. Of course, the plan had worked perfectly when the DarkTyranomon seem to be confused about the bushes and stepped closer and did not notice them from before. Only maybe a little too close at one point as Daisuke could see the foot right in front of his bush as a few leaves fall off.

Soon after, the six bushes continued their way into safety at the nearby passage where it is safe.

"Wow that was too close!" Daisuke said, breathing out from the tension from that scene.

"I thought he found out that we're here and was trying to eat us," Nat-chan breathed out.

"We're done with these bushes right? I think they were starting to get very itchy to move with" Wallace said.

"Yeah, and it looks like we're closer now too, take a look at that..." Daisuke pointed to the sky as a dark mist seems to fill the air in the area they are looking at.

As the six move forward a little to the next area, they discover that there is a large hole in front of them in the street. Stepping back to avoid falling, as they also noticed that where they came from is now blocked off with a wall. As if that was not enough, a few fires seem to fall from the sky.

"What is this? This doesn't make sense!" Terriermon complained as they all tried to avoid the falling fire.

_Somebody is playing some sort of trick, but how? I didn't hear a wall shift in place, so where we came from shouldn't be blocked off..._ Daisuke thought as he missed the calls of his friends as he looked up to notice a meteor-like rock on fire fall on him and engulf him in flames.

"So what are we going to do now?" Takeru asked, looking out into the corner to see if there would be something approaching.

"Maybe once Tailmon gets back, then we can start to find out where everyone else is, since we have no idea what's around right now," Hikari explained.

"I hope everyone else is safe too, because this is really hard on all of us right now," Patamon said, as he also peeked outside from the hideout.

Quietness seems to roam the streets, but they all knew that the shadows could be hiding their enemy right at this moment, and it is best not to act until they know what is ahead. After another moment's time, which seemed like an eternity in this situation, a landing sound echoed. Looking, up Tailmon returns to bring a report on the area.

"Tailmon! How is everything?" Hikari asked.

"Everything seems to be fine; this location is safe for the time being as the rampaging Digimon are off in another direction. Also, I think we should head left from here, I sense can see a dark mist rising" Tailmon report, and taking notice of Takeru and Patamon, "You two made it here too?"

"Yes, we were wandering around when Hikari called us after seeing us in a dangerous situation, and we were waiting for you to come back" Patamon said.

"Ok, so now that we have a lead on where to go, should we head there?" Hikari asked.

"Yes, but what about everyone else in this hideout?" Takeru responded.

"Don't worry about them, they are actually a close group that can take care of themselves, and they can put up resistance, so they're safe, and Tailmon said there is no danger around here right?" Hikari replied.

"Ok, then let's quietly head to that direction, maybe we can find all our friends and end this mess..." Tailmon finished, taking lead of the way. "We still have to be cautious though, something or someone may still be around"

As the four headed out, the quietness gave a chilly feeling, but not enough to stop them as they went left. As they passed through a park that Takeru went through before, they suddenly notice a slight change of atmosphere around them, looking around they tried to find out what was happening.

After looking around a little with no success on what could happen, a large circle appeared at their feet, and at once, a cylinder-shaped dark pillar erupted from the circle, trapping the four inside. A huge fear crippled them as they felt an overwhelming dark power over, as well as a sinister laugh.

Walking into the city for a few minutes seems to be hours because of not only the situation, but also fighting off the drowsiness in their minds, as Miyako and Iori with their partners tried to look for some clue to where they may be going.

"This is beyond tiring... and we're not really making any progress with where to go, are we?" Armadimon complained, feeling weak on all fours.

"I know, if only we get a clear view of this area, then we would know where to go, but since we don't have an idea, our best option is to guess where to go" Iori explained.

"A clear view? Oh! Leave that to me! Hawkmon, we need to evolve so we can get on top of there," Miyako pointed to the tallest building in their current location.

"Shouldn't we try to save our strength for a real battle instead of this?" Hawkmon suggested.

"He's right, we can just climb this thing, it's shouldn't be that hard either, because you can see the stairs from here" Iori said, pointing to the stairway outside on the building wall.

Without hesitation, the four went their way into the build and to their surprise, there were also DarkLizamon digging through stuff in that building too. However, that did not discourage them from their objective, as they sneaked past the first floor and out into the stairway. Only then were they spotted.

"Run for it! We'll have to trick them somehow at the roof to avoid fighting as well as coming down the same way!" Iori instructed as the door below burst open with their pursuers.

After a short pursuit, the four reached the roof. In their vision to the right is a dark misty area that seemed to be distinct compared to the other areas.

"That must be the place we need to get to!" Miyako noted.

"Yes, and now we should find a way back down without being spotted... hey, weren't someone chasing us earlier?" Iori said as he noticed there was no one going up after them.

After a look around, a condensing power, seem to create a magical dome over a large portion of the roof, trapping the four inside.

"I can't move!" Armadimon said.

Being stuck in the dome, they wondered what would happen next, and it seemed like an eternity before something did happen. The dome flipped downwards into a crater type of shape and brought the four into the ground. Only that this was not the ground, this is what seemed like an inverse world with the rooftops upside down, but they were still inside the dome. However, they could move freely inside the dome now.

Demon continued to look at the situation of the chosen children from above in the skies; it was all right for the time being. Although he may have sent out some of his most skilled servants to dispose of them, he fears that they might not be enough.

"This is unbelievable... even after all that work, they still manage to find out about where I am... and I just can't pack up and leave, since I do have some prisoners in that spot. Oh well, if they actually make it out of these situations alive, then I will take care of them myself, and I'd better prepare the battlefield here too, just in case..." Demon mused as he strengthened his barrier around his hideout. Being in the centre of all the chaos, Demon has set up a sort of a throne in this area with a pentagon-shaped perimeter that has a kind of fabric wall going upwards into the sky, and the top is closed making his place like a pentagon-tower structure.

The best accomplishment however, was Demon's current prisoners along with their partners. These included Agumon, Gabumon, Piyomon, Tentomon and Gomamon. Although earlier, a Palmon with her partner has escaped with their lives just barely alive. That did not bother Demon though, he could easily get them if he wanted to, but they were of no threat to them as of now.

* * *

So this part is not as short as I had in mind, so a bit longer probably and then eventually building up to a big one. Also, the bit on Digimon Frontier inside Daisuke's Digimon Tamers manga is just to make sense as Digimon Tamers originally had Digimon Adventure and 02 in there, which does not make sense here.

And I would also like to take this time to say that there are some formatting issues because of the site, there may be some errors that are out of reach.


	15. Chapter 14

* * *

**Chapter 14: The Dark Prison, Part 2**

Takeru scanned the area around to trace the source of the laughing voice. There was no sign of the enemy around, but being inside an environment of darkness and harmful powers, nothing good will come out of this. Even though the enemy could not be seen, a certain firing sound that alerted both Takeru and Patamon to dodge the attack from their left side.

Even though the missile missed them, Hikari, who is still shocked by the unpleasant powers of this area stood there. Tailmon ran for Hikari and pushing her out of the range of fire. This brought back Hikari from her initial scare of the unpleasant atmosphere.

"Hey Hikari, are you going to be all right?" Takeru asked.

"Yes, but what's going on here anyway?" Hikari responded, looking around the environment but seeing nobody except for the four of them.

"Can you see me?" Taunted the voice that originates from nowhere.

Despite being on alert, another fired missile comes at the group of four, scattering them. Although this time Patamon managed to catch a distinctive sound when the missile fired off.

_Maybe..._ Patamon thought, concentrating to listen to the sounds that should come. Again, a sort of a charge up start could be heard and Patamon took the chance and fired an Air Shot at the direction of the sound. The plan worked out, an explosion went off, and a distinctive shape could be seen in the darkness now.

"Takeru, we have to evolve and catch him now!" Patamon said, knowing what to do.

Takeru and Hikari wasted no time as they evolved their partners into Pegasmon and Nefertimon, and immediately, they let loose their Sanctuary Bind to reveal their foe. From power of the Sanctuary Bind, a figure with a pair of robotic wings with a balanced body and bits of red appeared.

"What the..." Pegasmon said in surprise, noticing the strangeness of the somewhat familiar Digimon.

"Oh, caught already... I was hoping for some more fun!" Complained the foe.

Hikari and Takeru seem to recognise the Digimon a little bit too, except maybe for the colours, and somehow they were not sure exactly how this fight would come out with this enemy.

"A BlackRapidmon?" Hikari said.

"Ah, this is too boring, let's bring some excitement shall we?" The BlackRapidmon replied, flying upwards despite being held down by the Sanctuary Bind. Putting his legs together and lifting his two arms, he forms a triangle.

As everyone recognises the shape and attack from BlackRapidmon, nobody could say much before the purple energy of the Tri-Beam shot through the Sanctuary Bind and met the two Digimon. Shortly after the blast, their reverted back to their Child and Adult forms. Helplessness seems to grow again as BlackRapidmon faded away into the darkness again leaving Hikari and Takeru with their partners.

"I know all about your powers... it's not like Demon would make us go into enemy territory without informing us of our enemies..." BlackRapidmon taunted again, sounding more annoying this time.

"This is not good; we really are out of ideas..." Takeru grunted, waiting in anticipation of another attack from the darkness and knowing they could not do anything. Although Patamon and Tailmon seem to be all right from the earlier attack, they were really out of ideas on what to do except gather together and hope there would be light... somehow.

Another barrage of missiles came at them from the sides, and even with great reflexes in dodging the shots, there was no escape from the explosions. As Tailmon flew to the side of the cylinder prison, she waited for the next attack with Hikari, knowing that it may just come any moment. They waited, but there was no response except Takeru and Patamon also on the alert somewhere close by. As Tailmon watched in front, a quick push from Hikari made her realise something as a Rapid Fire missile exploded on their spot from above.

_I see..._ Tailmon thought, just as she thought of an idea that may work. "Everyone! Gather at the sides of the prison" She said, and walking towards the middle.

"Tailmon, what are you doing?" Hikari asked, unsure of the situation for a one on one battle.

"Trust me..." Tailmon responded as she waited for another missile to come. After all, a single target like this is most easy to shoot down. As another missile flew towards Tailmon, she quickly shifted to the side and examined the missile's direction. As expected, it was heading straight towards her, and now her plan would come into place. With one strong and quick swing of her claw, Tailmon prevented the missile from hitting the ground and causing the explosion, and changing its course.

The missile flew into the wall of the cylinder prison, making a big hole, which gave way to light, as well as escape. Without another second wasted, the four of them all poured outside of the prison.

"Now we should evolve..." Patamon said as he realised Tailmon's smart plan.

"But he'll just do the same thing to break free?" Takeru protested.

"No, I don't mean that..." Patamon replied, as Takeru also realised something as well.

"He did say he's known about our current powers, but he probably doesn't know about those..." Patamon replied, as everyone knew what to do as the BlackRapidmon could be heard from inside the prison.

The BlackRapidmon reappeared inside the prison and began to rush out, knowing that even with himself exposed, he can still destroy his opponents with ease. "You're just delaying the inevitable!" BlackRapidmon cheered, almost sure of his guaranteed victory.

Just as BlackRapidmon came out of the prison in pursuit of his prey, Lynxmon rushed at the robot with Thermal Mane active as explosions hit BlackRapidmon directly.

"What! Who are you?" BlackRapidmon yelled as the attacks burned him.

"It's just us, don't you remember?" Shouted Stegomon from behind as he rammed into BlackRapidmon's back with his Guillotine Wheel. The attack went through successfully, and BlackRapidmon flew frontwards and smashed into a building.

"That was a close one..." Takeru breathed out as safety returned...

"Let's head for that place now that we've taken care of things here..." Hikari said as everyone there focused on his or her destination.

Inside the dome of the inverse world, there seem to be horror in the air, and both Miyako and Iori knew that it would be impossible to use any evolved form of their partners.

"I suppose you have figured it out already, this place is intended especially for the two of you..." Said a voice from a figure that slowly emerges from the floor of the haunted place.

Looking at the direction of the voice, a Digimon with blue and purple fur along with white ritual-like clothing appeared. The sleeves of this Digimon cover her arms completely, and the clothing for the bottom is a black long-pant like wear. The wizard Digimon that appeared before them seem to be intimidating as nobody knew how they would fight an opponent like this, not without their evolved forms at least.

"Hey Hawkmon, who is that?" Miyako asked, having never seen an enemy like this before.

"I don't know, I think Armadimon knows though..." Hawkmon replied as all eyes lay upon him.

"Well, looking at the appearance, they sort of fit with some of the clothing I've seen in Iori's books, and they look like Taoism stuff. I think that's Taomon..." Armadimon answered.

"So, it would seem like that you are all trying to figure it out. You're close but not quite. I'm Doumon, pleased to meet you all. And that's all you need to know, as this is the end for all of you" Doumon declared, sending a sense of doom into the four.

"As if we'll be beaten by the likes of you!" Miyako harshly responded, not willing to surrender without a fight or some sort.

"Suit yourself, but it's inevitable..." Doumon responded as she opened one paw and released a wave of red paper strips at the four, and two landed on the forehead of Armadimon and Hawkmon. "I've sealed your attacks, so it is hopeless to resist"

Doumon summoned her magical brush and began to throw down an attack at the middle of four, separating them. The attack left a huge mark on the ground; there would be no room for mistakes in avoiding these attacks.

_This is not good, we're all going down in one hit, and we can't evolve... what should we do?_ Iori thought as he thought of the possibilities to escape this one.

As Doumon continued her rampage inside the small area of the dome, the two children along with the two Digimon cling to their lives but still could not figure out what to do in a situation like this. Not only are the Digimon only allowed in their Child forms. With another attack, the Chosen children and their partners were separated, and while they were on opposite ends, Doumon faced Miyako and Iori, looking down on them.

"Wait! Don't finish us yet! We want to live these last seconds, just don't finish us off yet!" Miyako pleaded as Doumon stopped as she raised her brush.

"And why should I listen to you?" Doumon inquired.

"Just let us live for a little longer, it's a human thing... our partners are over there, go bug them instead..." Miyako said, as Doumon lowered her brush while Iori looked at Miyako in surprise.

"Hmm, as expected... you humans are willing to give up anything for your own good..." Doumon finished as she started to move toward Hawkmon and Armadimon.

Quickly taking the opportunity, Miyako whispered a message to Iori about a plan to get them out of the mess, and that bit on giving up was all just to buy time to explain this plan. Seeing that Miyako obviously has something planned, the Digimon also prepared for any action to take, even though they could not attack.

"That's crazy! What if it doesn't work?" Iori protested when he heard Miyako's plan.

"We have no other way, besides just trust me on this one, ok?" Miyako replied, and immediately putting her plan into motion without Iori's approval as she got on her feet and ran towards Doumon.

As Doumon raised her brush to attack the Digimon, she could hear Miyako release a piercing scream that ringed in the dome. Turning around, Doumon found Miyako in mid-air behind her, but was unable to do anything as Miyako gave her a large kick. Doumon fell over while dropping her brush. When she got back up, her anger and hatred burned against Miyako for such an insolent act.

"You!" Doumon yelled out, as she tried to take a step forward but fell facedown as Iori held both her legs in place.

Without another moment wasted, Hawkmon, Armadimon, and Iori took the brush and lifted it in the air, then dropped it on Doumon before she could get up again, breaking free of the cursed dimension. As soon as they broke free, the four noticed their position was at the base of the building they were at before.

"See? That plan worked, and since he had a good view of the area from before, let's head towards the centre!" Miyako cheered as her companions wondered how they managed to win.

"I didn't think that would work... But I guess it did" Iori admitted.

Even though they were tired, the group of four slowly headed for the centre, where the problem is.

Horror filled the air as what where Daisuke used to be is now a big fire, and probably eating away at Daisuke. However, before one of Daisuke's friends could speak a word, a laugh could be heard from the fire.

"Haha... what's this? A joke of some sort!?" Daisuke said inside the flames as he dissolved the flame on his own, much to his friends' surprise.

"Daisuke? What's going on? Are you all right?" Ken asked, not understanding the scene.

"Oh, everything is fine, let's head towards the centre now..." Daisuke replied as he ran for the open hole in the street.

Wallace tried to get a hold of Daisuke to prevent him from doing something stupid from the impact of the flame or whatever that made him crazy, but was unable to catch the running Daisuke. As everybody looked at Daisuke about to fall into the endless pit, they could not help but wonder what is going on, until Daisuke actually reached the pit and started to walk over it like normally.

"What? Did that fire give Daisuke magic or what?" Terriermon said, amazed at the sight.

"This isn't magic or some sort of trick... And neither was surviving that fire... I figured it out when I felt no pain as well as figuring out that it was impossible for a wall to appear without a sliding or crashing sound... This was when I realised that all this is just some fake illusion made by some loser--most likely Demon, to slow us down... So don't worry, come and walk on this area yourself" Daisuke explained to his friends while on the illusion hole.

"An illusion?" Wallace said, reaching out to touch the wall that was in place of the way they came from before. Indeed, it was confirmed that all they see was an illusion as Wallace's hand went right through the wall.

Of course, triumph over the illusion was not the only trail in this area, as Daisuke, Wallace, and Ken with their partners walked halfway across the street they heard a big landing and turning to their left, they saw a familiar figure.

_What!? Him again!?_ Daisuke thought as he saw the large Digimon standing over them. This Digimon is armoured heavily in the upper body and the arms along with a hard helmet as well.

"So... you thought that you could get rid of me that easily?" The evolved BlackMegaloGrowmon asked, this time having the clear advantage.

"Uhh, well..." Daisuke barely managed to say, not knowing what to do in this situation, and whether they should fight or just run away.

"It doesn't matter, that's in the past. Let's focus on the present right now and how I will return the favour," BlackMegaloGrowmon said as he energised his blades and began to slash the group of six.

"I don't think he's happy about earlier, Daisuke!" Nat-chan said as she barely dodged one of the blades that came their way and notice that the cyborg Digimon is now charging at them.

"I know that, but what can I do? He looked like he was an easy target to get rid of during that time..." Daisuke replied as BlackMegaloGrowmon swiped one of his blades and smashed into the building above Daisuke, which made a piece of the building fall down.

Daisuke barely dodges the falling pieces, but then a smashing hit downwards breaks the fallen piece as well as creating a hole in the ground in reality, but not visible because of the illusion. As Daisuke fell without warning, he gripped onto the edge of the remains of the road even though it is not visible due to the illusion.

"Don't be so confident about the ground you walk on anymore, with this illusion you can't tell if you're on ground or not!" BlackMegaloGrowmon boasted.

"Daisuke! Try to buy us some time while we figure out something to defeat him" Ken called out as he and Wallace with their partners have figured out something.

"Yeah, that's if I don't die first" Daisuke replied as he and Nat-chan barely avoids another Radiation Blade.

While Daisuke continues to run for his life, Wormmon and Terriermon gets ready their trap, although his plan put Terriermon into an uncomfortable place. After a round of chasing and smashing things around, Daisuke and Nat-chan found themselves cornered and unable to move anywhere else in fear that they may fall into a pit created by the destruction of this battle.

"This is the end for you two!" BlackMegaloGrowmon said, almost sure of victory, until a few shouts from Wallace and Ken redirects his attention to the other two. Once the big cyborg turned around, Terriermon spun with his Petit Twister and attacked the large robotic Digimon head on. This however, only irritated the big Digimon as he turned to the four. "So the four of you want to go first? Ok, not a problem..." As BlackMegaloGrowmon began to charge his emitters for the Atomic Blaster attack.

Daisuke remembered how powerful the attack could be even with just MegaloGrowmon, and this was simply too much for anyone to survive a direct hit, especially when there is only Child Digimons. "Hey! Don't just stand there! Run away!" Daisuke shouted.

"Don't worry, Daisuke you did your part, and now we will do ours," Wallace responded and Terriermon still felt disgusted to have to go with this plan.

Before the Atomic Blaster even came out, a big inward explosion within BlackMegaloGrowmon stopped him completely, something which Daisuke did not understand. As BlackMegaloGrowmon fell down, the illusion also seems to shatter, revealing the area all around Daisuke and Nat-chan to be craters and that they were lucky to be left standing. Nevertheless, the six managed to regroup and continue on their way to the centre where Demon is.

"You see, we had Wormmon make enough Silk Thread to clog up his emitters since we know that those are likely to fire off at one point, especially if we are close together. Of course, the delivery part was tricky since Terriermon was reluctant to do that..." Wallace explained as complaints from Terriermon continued.

"I don't like that at all!" Terriermon complained again as they neared Demon's "throne".

"Hey whatever, it's over now and we're all happy, so we don't need to worry about it anymore since we didn't need to use a peanut butter product for the big guy," Daisuke said, only gaining strange glances at him.

O_h right... they don't read Tamers... How should I explain this... _Daisuke thought as he is acting too weird because of influence from his favourite manga.

"Oh hey, I think I need to check up on something, go on ahead to that Demon's layer, I will be right there with you..." Daisuke replied, quickly grabbing Nat-chan and running away.

"Hey Daisuke! This is no time to run off!" Wallace called.

"Let him go, its better without him..." Terriermon joked, only to get looks from the others that it was not a funny joke.

"Well, should we wait for him then?" Ken asked, while staying just outside of Demon's layer. It was obvious that Demon would be residing in this place considering the amount of evil sources that guarded the area around the barrier as well as many instruments that are not of the world.

The four waited until a large sound explosion ripped inside the barrier, and knowing that Daisuke would come eventually; the two pairs forced their way through the barrier into the battlefield. Inside, they could see their companions gathered here as well: Miyako and Iori at one side, Hikari and Takeru at another side and themselves at one side while Demon stood at the fourth side of his pillar-like hideout.

"What? How is it possible, they were all defeated?" Demon asked in disbelief that three of his trusted servants would fall even after knowing the exact attributes of their enemies. Waving his hand, Demon collected the visions of his servants and their battles, and much to his surprise is the many stupid forms of strategy that the Chosen Children used, which included breaking free from a prison and then an ambush attack, deception and using one's own brush against her or even clogging emitters to self-destruction.

"As long as we're together no matter what you do, we'll always beat you!" Takeru declared, looking at the fake-Ophanimon with the intent of winning for sure with everyone at the same place.

"Don't think you've won yet, boy... you still can't beat me..." Demon spat out with poison as a dark aura seem to emit from the Ophanimon's shell when a sudden crash seem to disrupt everything at the scene.

Everybody looked around to see what could be a cause of the disruption, and slowly, a tear starts to form at the roof of the hideout. Many eyes look up to the ceiling as the hole gets bigger and finally breaks apart into little bits of power instead of collapsing to the floor. Up in the sky above the ceiling of the barrier the moon's light finds its way into the hideout as a flow of energy fills the place and seem to revitalise everyone except Demon in the barrier. Another thing noticeable above the shattered roof is what seems to be a LadyDevimon along with a human figure riding on the Digimon.

"Hi! I'd thought I just drop in from above to see how things are, seems like you are well, pervert!" Daisuke's voice taunted from above as Demon was unsure of what to do but let his hatred and anger burn.

"W-what is this! You're trying to make a fool of me aren't you!" Demon said angrily as he readied the corrupted Shining Javelin of Ophanimon and was ready to attack when he noticed that he was surrounded. In the confusion of looking up to the roof where Daisuke is, the other Digimon evolved through the power of the moonlight as figures of Galgomon, Stingmon, Angewomon, Angemon, Aquilamon, and Ankylomon surround Demon in surprise. "Oh no!"

A whole barrage of attacks, Bug Ki swarms, a Tail Hammer, Blast Laser rings, Gatling Arm beams, Holy Arrows, and Heaven's Knuckle beam all pushed towards the invested Ophanimon.

"He's down, now we finish this, Nat-chan!" Daisuke said as he saw the opportunity.

"Of course, I don't like perverts as you call him..." Nat-chan responded to surprise Daisuke. With a single charge, Nat-chan unleashed a Darkness Wave and flew downwards, pushing Demon further into the ground with an explosion, ending it all.

After what seems to be the end without much of resistance, victory seem to be at hand, as the dark environment began to shrink, and the sky seem to clear as some light was able to pour into the city. The essence of life seem to fill the air, and no more would be the forces of darkness, but only light and peace...

However, that is only a wish, a single laugh from Demon made everything barrier and dark cloud grow back into place and bigger than before.

A wave of fear seem to move across everyone as Demon rose again, and in this Ophanimon form, it looks like a fiery version of the previous Ophanimon. Only that this kind of fire is not orange and yellow bright, but rather black and purple sinister.

"Are you wondering why none of your attacks worked even though I was off guard? It's simple; you all fell for my trap. I have powers over the light as well, and the power of the moonlight gives me strength too, so don't think I'd be beaten like that!" Demon hissed under Ophanimon's shell and discharged a 

blue electric shockwave that reaches out to everyone in range and disabling everyone, as well as reversal of evolved Digimon. "This is my custom mode, Ophanimon, Demon edition!"

_Should be more like Ophanimon, Super Perverted Demon Deluxe version if you ask me..._ Daisuke thought as he looked at how ridiculous Demon is within Ophanimon.

At the shock of the energy discharge, no one was left standing after Daisuke and Nat-chan crashed down on the floor of Demon's in-progress "throne room".

"It's not like I haven't seen you little ones just tricky little traps, and I can do so too, so how do you like it down there? Hmm? Oh well, I suppose you can't hear me anymore..." Demon mused over his victory, and raised his fake hand into the air, causing a dark ball of energy to form, and what appeared under all of the Chosen Children was a spell circle. The circles shortly erupt with a swirl of dark energy, converting the essence of power from all the victims to Demon himself.

However, Daisuke recognises the force and power of the circle and immediately, with his remaining strength breaks free from the grip and picks up the unconscious Nat-chan while rushing out of the area. To Daisuke's surprise, Demon did not notice him slip away.

_Ohh... I feel sore all over... Just what is with that ugly pervert?_ Daisuke thought as he managed to run away in between two buildings and find a relatively safe spot for now, even though he knows that his friends are in grave danger and Nat-chan is not in a much better condition than he is. _This is no good, I can't lose like this, but what can I do? That stupid Demon is probably absorbing everyone's powers, and unless I figure out something this is can't go on..._

After another period of taking shallow breathes, Daisuke gathers his remaining strength and stands up again, and walking just long enough to try to open the door on the left side. It was a half-surprise that the door is not locked, considering that no one would really think of locking the doors in their houses since no one would be safe in any place.

Daisuke fell down on a couch nearby; at least there is some way to rest in the midst of all the chaos. In fact, chaos may be outside, but inside on the comfortable place here is harmony. Thinking to get some rest before actually planning another course of action to attack would be optimal for the time being, and Daisuke knew that fact. Only Daisuke cannot afford to fall asleep completely as nowhere is safe, and knowing that Demon has all his friends captive, it would mean trouble.

_Just for a little bit..._ Daisuke thought as he closed his eyes, controlling himself to rest up but try not to fall asleep. No, he just cannot fall asleep, sleep is doom and no matter what, constant state of alert is necessary. Still, Daisuke fell asleep.

* * *

Well, here is the penultimate chapter of this piece. Hopefully the updates are not too slow and that everything is not too rushed as it seems.


	16. Chapter 15

* * *

**Chapter 15: The Black Cat and her Partner**

Daisuke found himself fighting to wake up from the fatigue, but somehow he knew that he just had to wake up. After a little struggle, Daisuke slowly opens his eyes and slowly scans the area. The place around him is the same as before, which meant that at least he and Nat-chan are still alive... for the time being. Not that anything mattered now as long as Daisuke could at least think of something to get everybody out of this mess. Looking over to the clock in the room, Daisuke could see there is only a few hours difference from when he fell asleep unintentionally. Still, the warmth of the house as well as the cleanness of this particular house did seem to give an aura of sereneness, and there are enough windows at certain locations just to look outside for any change.

"You're up Daisuke..." Said the voice from the black cat.

Daisuke took a second to remember all that has happened before he fell asleep, and realised that he was holding onto his partner, and wondered when his partner got up.

"Yeah... it looks like we barely made it out alive... no, more like we are lucky to be alive," Daisuke stated.

"Yes... so what do you plan to do now?" Nat-chan asked.

"I don't really know, but... I guess we've really got to fight that ugly one alone... there just has to be some way to win..." Daisuke said, trying to figure out something for the situation.

"Your friends... they are not dead. They are all safe as a matter of fact," Nat-chan, informed, knowing something from the earlier encounter with Demon.

Daisuke turned around, he could not say anything about his friends being alive, but how would Nat-chan know? "They are?"

"Of course, I can see that power-hungry pervert only took away our friends and place them inside of him like data... where he can use their powers... but humans can't be assimilated that way," Nat-chan explained, being of Digimon origin, she knew about the basics of Digimon and their functions a little like every other Digimon.

"I see... hmm, well whatever the case is, I don't think I am ready to give up... but first, let's check outside for now..." Daisuke responded, as Nat-chan motioned for him to follow her.

The pair went upstairs, and then going out to the balcony area of the building. Outside, the environment did not have many changes except for hordes of Digimon at the streets all seemingly to face towards where Demon is. Going up the few dark stairs, the pair reaches the top where they see the sky being clear red. The colour does not seem to be affected by the time of day, but rather something, that Demon may be using, as the red sky seems to have a wave pattern that is drawn towards where Demon's layer is, and above the lair is a whirlpool-like formation in the sky.

"There is no mistaking it that he's right there... but it looks like he is trying to do something that would change this world permanently" Nat-chan observed as the energies around the whole atmosphere seems to be different from before. Also, the horizons that were clear from before seems to be sealed shut as well.

"It looks like it... but I'm not going to let him do this... but the question is how do I stop him? Our powers combined back there could hardly even reach him and now it's just us while he's even more powerful..." Daisuke said, realising the huge disadvantage situation at hand.

"Daisuke... do you trust me?" Nat-chan asked.

"Huh?" Daisuke replied in confusion to the sudden question.

"Can you trust me in that we can defeat the enemy even if the odds are against us?" Nat-chan repeated.

"I... yeah, of course! but we're still..." Daisuke began to reason again, when Nat-chan something over his voice.

"Then that's all we need to win, as long as we don't have any doubt we can win for sure," Nat-chan finished.

Daisuke thought about the issue for a moment, perhaps he is using too much logic and reason to figure out how to win. Sure, it may be great for some occasions, and it is something that Daisuke has learned from the year away. However, right now, it is a completely different matter as maybe for tough enemies like the perverted-Demon, and perhaps there is no need for thinking, just the usual fighting. Of course, thinking and reasoning may be good, but perhaps it just does not suit Daisuke that well considering the circumstances now.

"All right then, let's go and finish off Pervertedmon!" Daisuke cheered as Nat-chan nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Demon continues to strive under the opulence of power from his captives. Both teams of chosen seem to be complete in Demon's bubble-prisons, and seeing them languish made Demon happy. Of course, what made these children rich in power is the fact that they were originally gifted with the power of the crests from the beginning, and is nothing better than having them all at one place while supplying power to one source. In addition, crowds of Digimon from outside Demon's layer seem to be acknowledging him as king.

"Soon, this world shall be completely under my control... for now it is merely under a spell that puts everybody in the area under an illusion... but once I gather enough power to bring everything over... then it will be the end! Hmm, I never thought the task of making this world into my world would be this easy... unlike last time after this kid opened a portal back to my world and trapping me there..." Demon muttered, while reaching one arm over and seems to hold the sphere-prison that held Ken and Wormmon. "Hmm, If only you kept living with that dark power, then you'd be useful... but now it doesn't matter anyway, I'm not interested in you..."

"Well, that's good to hear, because you're dealing with me now!" Yelled out a voice from ground level of Demon's layer.

Looking down, Demon sees Daisuke, standing in the middle of the lair and standing strong to face the corrupted Ophanimon. The environment did not change from the last time, besides the red sky, everything around the place seem dark just as they and that Demon had all three holes to his hideout earlier fixed.

"What? I thought that..." Demon said in surprise, as he looked to the number of Chosen Children he held in captivity.

Daisuke grinned at the sight; this would be fun to a certain degree for him. "Heh and I thought I was bad at math... at least I could multiply, unlike Pervertedmon that can't even count..." Daisuke teased, waiting for the explosive reaction of Demon.

"SILENCE!" Demon roared at Daisuke's insolence as he noticed the hole beside his "throne" inside the barrier.

"What, I am only telling the truth..." Daisuke said in response, being confident about his position.

Demon signalled for three of his minions to come into the barrier. However, as the barrier opened up, and the three that were suppose to show up happen to be disappearing into data, and Demon could only wonder about it as he remembered that Daisuke did have a partner. The LadyDevimon descended with her Darkness Spear active, and what seemed like a huge battle would unfold from this fight would start very soon.

"Well, I suppose that you can put up some resistance despite being an insolent brat... but still, I am the perfect entity with an equal balance of light and darkness, you cannot win..." Demon mused.

"What? Perfect entity, what is this garbage you speak of?" Daisuke asked, knowing that Demon is most likely lying.

"The perfect existence, that which is above all... You see, for ages now light, darkness has always been at war..., and that is natural as they are opposites of each other. However, when I, part of the darkness took over this holy Digimon's body, I felt the beginning of perfection... That's right, this perfection is the successful fusion of both light and darkness into an entity that is beyond all, but I could say that I am not first to attempt this..." Demon explained, and thought back a little at his closing statement. "One time that Dagomon tried the same thing... by using his powers, he called the Chosen of Light, where he attempted to make her his concubine... and that's where he would rise to perfection... too bad though, because your friend with the powers of Hope had to intervene..."

Daisuke could not believe what he was hearing at this point, was Demon just bluffing? It did not seem like it, there is really no sense in making lies this long, but still, it did make sense to hear from Hikari and Takeru that time.

"Are you in doubt? Well, I guess someone as low as you won't understand perfection, but if you need further proof; I'll tell you that when I took over this body, it was not perfect yet, and not until I got some of the powers from your girlfriend..." Demon finished as he inwardly laughed and held out one of his prisoners.

Daisuke look up, and not surprising, in Demon's hand is Hikari. "Ugh, you just be quiet!"

"Hehehe, can't bear to see your girlfriend in such a form can you? Well, as long as she's here I can make you do anything I want..." Demon teased, almost sure of having the victory.

With Demon having Hikari in his hand, Daisuke knew it would not be wise to fight directly head-on. Still, there was the 'girlfriend' comment that seem to strike Daisuke deeper than anything else Demon had said. With a moment of silence, Daisuke allowed the growing darkness inside of him grow, and after another moment of silence, Daisuke faced Demon and sneered at the Demon, creating a bit of an energy change in the air.

The impact of the energy change caused a slight zap to Demon's hand, and releasing Hikari. As Hikari dropped, Daisuke ran and caught his falling friend. Tailmon was nowhere nearby, so Tailmon has to be still trapped inside Demon's prison.

"What? Boy, I don't know what power you have, but you're interesting... however, because of the threat coming from you, I cannot allow you to live... this ends now!" Demon declared as he summoned ten magic shards and readied the Sefirot Crystals.

As the crystals rained down on Daisuke's position, he tried to avoid some of them, and with minimal success. Nat-chan flew in with her Darkness Spear and barely managed to deflect a few to safety as the barrage ended. However, Demon would not easily his targets get away as he summoned twice as much Sefirot Crystals and began to rain on the helpless Daisuke. While Nat-chan tried to deflect the few attacks, many also rained down on her, inflicting damage and causing her to fall down.

_This is stupid... he is just ridiculously strong because of the absorbing of everyone else's power... there just has to be some way... but even Nat-chan is..._ Daisuke thought as he looked to the horrible conditions.

Meanwhile, inside one prison of Demon, Ken slowly struggles against the fatigue, and slowly awakens. He remembered that his brother had visited him in his dream before, and remembering what his task is, Ken tries to mentally connect with Daisuke, hoping that the powers around the environment would allow such a link.

**Daisuke... Daisuke!** Ken called.

**Huh? What, Ken!?** Responded in the communication.

**Yes. Daisuke, listen... I've been under the same strange powers from before so I understand how you're handling with things right now... but you've got to trust me with this...** Ken explained.

**Well, I guess I can since this is the end anyway... And mind explaining why we're able to talk like this?** Daisuke responded.

**I will explain that later, for now listen to my advice: Since Demon has made such a vast force of darkness, it is possible to use it for yourself... just as long you don't let it control you.** Ken replied.

**How's that suppose to help in this situation? We're pretty much done...** Daisuke complained.

**No, it's not over until it really is Daisuke! I know you better than that, just trust me!** Ken urged.

**Ok ok...** Daisuke agreed.

Daisuke focused, Ken was right, there were copious amounts of dark energy, and Daisuke would be able to use the powers. After all, the strange affinity between Daisuke and the darkness pretty much made Daisuke a darkness eater. After absorbing enough power, Daisuke could feel the power pouring out of him and when he did so with the Dark Digimental in his pocket, a shockwave blew outwards from Daisuke.

The shockwave shocked the entire area, releasing all the captive Chosen Children as well as their powers while Demon's power drained out and the Sefirot Crystals that were flying down intending to finish Daisuke all dissipated. As Daisuke's friends all reappeared, Daisuke put down Hikari beside Takeru. Afterward, it seemed like that the other Children would awaken at anytime, but Daisuke could see that his allies are in no shape for battle.

"Boy, what is that power you have...?" Demon questioned, unable to grasp what Daisuke did just the last few minutes.

"That's none of your concern..." Daisuke replied in a heavy voice, "But here is a few things you should know though: Hikari is **NOT** my girlfriend and I don't care about your perfection level or whatnot, because I'm going to beat you!" Daisuke finished as he raised his D-Terminal, and with the Dark Digimental glowed with a large blue-sphere power.

_All right let's finish this ugly guy now, Nat-chan!_ Daisuke said to himself as the power explode across the battlefield.

As the power grew, an eruption took place and as the pillar grew thinner, Demon watched in suspense as to what could happen now. The power cleared up, and Daisuke stood there with the same clothing as he is seen in the Digital World and the black jacket, except now behind the jacket is a full moon, reflecting the full moon through the hole the eruption blew in Demon's hideout.

Behind Daisuke is Nat-chan, who floats with a new pair of dark wings, as well as a new hair arrangement on the face along with the lower body in purple as well as one decayed hand, Nat-chan in this form is also more human-like. Demon could freeze in fear as he observed the figure that is now floating in mid-air. This was no deception, and no illusion here, and for once, Demon could feel a taste of fear as the new figure of Lilithmon looked at him with a contempt.

"Ultimate form..." Takeru barely managed to say as he and the other children looked the new Nat-chan. While informed about the existence of the Demon Lords, the Chosen Children never did get to see much of the Demon Lords except Demon himself. However, even more unexpected is to see a second Demon Lord, and much to their relief is that this Demon Lord is on their side fighting against Demon.

"I-impossible!" Demon said in fear, not believing what is happening.

"Oh, what's wrong? I thought you were all powerful being the perfect being?" Daisuke questioned, while forming a smile.

"H-hold on! Not so fast, don't think I am finished yet!" Demon said in response, as he released Eden's Javelin beam towards Daisuke.

Only Nat-chan flies in between and reaches out with the decayed arm, pushing the beam back and eventually reaching Demon. Before Demon could react again, Nat-chan lifted the Nazar Nails and immediately attacking through the Shining Javelin of Demon as well as pushing the corrupted Ophanimon back.

"N-not yet!" Demon yelled again at the pain of the Nazar Nail's acidic corrosion.

Reaching out his arms, Demon unleashed his Flame Inferno attack, and while opening his barrier and his most trusted servants swarmed in. Seeing the immediate danger, Nat-chan releases her Phantom Pain mist to cover the entire area for protection as she herself flew upwards with Demon following.

"We've made it this far... we will not be beaten easily..." Nat-chan said, knowing that there would be no failures in this battle.

"But... my perfect existence..." Demon said feeling a bit exhausted since he first entered the world.

"Is worth nothing at all! I know you've faced us before and you expect to beat us with that new power, but it won't work... times have changed and it is obvious that you can't handle one of your own kind!" Daisuke said from below as he continued to gather his friends to safety along with their Digimon.

Demon continued to resist despite the grave situation, as he continued to attack with Sefirot Crystals, but only Nat-chan flew past a few, and ignoring the some that did came in contact and held one of Demon's angelic hands with the decayed hand, spilling the corrosive acids all over Demon's hand, causing a sharp pain for Demon.

Knowing that defeat is the most likely scenario now, Demon began to gather the last of his energies, and then directed the energies in controlling his temporary world. "Don't think I am unprepared for this, right now you will witness the collapsing of one world onto another, which will cause more pain for you than ever... Oh, and with my world collapsing onto yours, I will just return no problem, so it's fine that you've won this time..." Demon explained as a small laughter erupted from him.

The world around the whole area seems to shake, and Demon's domain in the world begins to weaken, as the cracks and rips of the domain opened, a black force floods into the area, filling the area of where Demon's domain and causing chaos.

As the world seems to collapse on itself, dark forces seem to fill the ground as Daisuke found the darkness to be overwhelming like a wave of water. Above, Nat-chan could almost feel the sky falling down on her, as the dark forces seem to push her down while Demon continues to laugh.

_What is this? Some sort of self-destruct? Hmm, tricky..._ Daisuke thought as he could almost feel himself drown in the vastness of this darkness that even he may not be able to "eat".

**Daisuke, there is still a way to win...** Whispered Nat-chan from the darkness.

**There is?** Daisuke questioned.

**We can still combine our powers and push Demon out of this place so that he would be destroyed, although I do not know where we would end up...** Nat-chan explained.

**What!? Are you saying that we're going to disappear?** Daisuke asked.

**No, we won't disappear, but just uncertain where we'll end up, since what we're doing is combining a mixture of human strength and digital powers, but this is the only way to stop him at this point... what shall we do?** Nat-chan asked, leaving the decision to Daisuke.

**Well, if it means saving everyone then we'll do it...** Daisuke decided, reached out his hands in the darkness, and slowly his Digivice glowed, and a fire seems to flow from Daisuke as he closed his eyes to see Demon up in the air.

_There..._ Daisuke thought as he floated in the middle of the dark mass with the white flame surrounding himself and Nat-chan surrounded in the same white-flames.

As Demon floated in the sky, he breathed victory, thinking that this was the end. Only to have a large pillar of white flames rise from the floor all the way through the sky's top.

"What now..." Demon groaned, as the pillar seems to expand a little.

Inside, Daisuke and Nat-chan looked at their powers raise them into the sky and floated, everything seemed like a now or never moment. At once the white pillar seem to rip through the sky and come downwards at Demon, who was powerless to do anything to stop this force from coming down at him.

"This is the end!" Daisuke and Nat-chan said as they along with their energies smashed into Demon, causing a huge light explosion. The light continued expanding throughout the realm that Demon created, devouring every part of Demon's world, stopping the collapsing, and restoring the entire Odaiba region back to its original state. Like a balloon, the shape shift world from Demon's energies popped, and slowly Odaiba is released from the dark hold of the evil world with life being restored. The truth was that destruction and chaos never really did happen, but rather a nightmare illusion that took over the land. Now as the curse is broken, the land lives again.

"_Hey Nat-chan..._" Daisuke said while in the force of light.

"_Yes?_" Nat-chan responded.

"_We won, didn't we... Heh, so I wonder we'll end up now..._" Daisuke began.

"_We don't know, but we'll be back, right?_" Nat-chan asked.

"_Yeah, for now we'll be elsewhere, but we'll return some day... you're with me in this, right?_" Daisuke questioned.

"_Always_" Nat-chan confirmed.

As the city returned, the area where Daisuke and Nat-chan clashed with Demon explode with light again, and turning into one single bolt of energy, went straight to the ground of the area where Demon's layer would have been. A single mark is left at the spot where the bolt of energy landed, though there were no sign of Daisuke or Nat-chan.

* * *

Well, I must say that the last two chapters and including this one seem to be completely different from what I originally planned, and for the better too. Since the original plan would have seemed a rushed piece of work that would not be able to bring out as much fun (Although I suspect even with that, this chapter may feel like rushed, haha).

And I have also confirmed from going through the last updates and uploaded works that the site is not cooperating with how I want it to, so I really apologise for formatting errors, as they may be impossible to fix at the moment, as these errors occur after saving the documents on the site.


	17. Epilogue

* * *

**Epilogue: A Beginning**

**Daisuke...**

_Ugh, no! I don't want to get up..._ Daisuke thought

**Daisuke...!**

_No no no! I am too tired..._ Daisuke responded, although unsure of who was calling him.

"Daisuke!" Called a feminine voice.

"One hour more of sleep..." Daisuke whined, unsure of where and what the scene is, but rather just focus on getting sleep.

"No, get up now!" Urged the voice, and shortly Daisuke felt a hard pressure restraining his abdominal area, causing a disruption in breathing that got Daisuke to struggle to sit up as well as awake.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Daisuke responded as he slowly opened his eyes to scrutinise the area. From where he was lying down, is a grassy patch area that seemed to be full of life with a bright sun high up top in the sky. Just in front of Daisuke's area of grass area is a quiet beach, with the waves of the beach crashing and drawing back into the ocean.

"Looks like you're finally awake...," said the voice next to Daisuke, clearly belonging to a human.

"Yeah sorry, I was just a little..." Daisuke trailed off as he remembered his last task with eliminating Demon and then seemingly went unconscious after that. Looking over to his right, Daisuke sees a girl. The girl seems to be around the same age as Daisuke and his friends, and complete with a decent hairstyle with just ordinary clothing. Daisuke recognises the girl, but it was a strange time to meet her again in a place like this. "Eh? Nat-chan? You're human!"

"Yup! Since we're here, let's go have some fun!" Nat-chan suggested much to Daisuke's surprise at how his 'partner' would just be so relaxing in this environment without even finding out why they were here. Although he could not blame her, the tranquility of this beach area seemed like heaven.

_Hmm, I wonder what happened back there... So Demon's defeated and now I am here at an unknown location with Nat-chan, but there doesn't seem to be anyone here... Wait, if Nat-chan is human again, then we must be inside that weird world I was at during that summer... but why?_ Daisuke wondered as Nat-chan looked towards the sun shining down on the calm waters of the environment. Looking around, Daisuke could not find his Digivice, so there would be no communications here to confirm anything.

After a thorough search, Daisuke could not find his Digivice, but he did find his D-Terminal at another location of the grassy area and retrieved it. Upon opening the D-Terminal, there was one new e-mail message, where Daisuke opened it and began to read the message.

**Daisuke,**

**I am sorry I did not contact you earlier, but it seems like everything went fine. According to the systems around the Digital World and your world, it seems like that Demon caused an unstable link between the worlds as he brought his own world into existence.**

**However, thanks to your brave efforts, the Demon Lord is now no more, and that Odaiba and the region around there are now safe. Now, you are probably wondering where you might be--well, you are really just simply in your own world that you created.**

**It is the truth, what you see around you are what you dream of or what you dreamed of before. As it is right now, there is no possible method to draw the two of you back out, since your heart and you going there to safety was the only option after Demon. **

**Rest assured everyone is trying to figure out a way to get you out of there right now, as all your friends are informed about the situation, so there is no need to worry about anything. In the meantime, just enjoy the summer vacation inside your own world...**

**-The old man Gennai.**

Daisuke smiled at the words 'old man', it would seem like that Gennai would finally accept the 'old man' title, and now there would be plenty of room to tease the Digital being. Before closing the D-Terminal, Daisuke looks down to read one last line of the e-mail that he missed.

**P.S. I have your homework and assignments all here so that you will not fall behind in your studies, enjoy!**

Daisuke's eyes widened as he realised the papers that were meant to help him catch up for the school year missed. _Great, one moment that old man says to have fun, and the next he ruins the mood by bringing in homework! What's up with that!?_ Daisuke complained inwardly.

"So you know about it now..." Nat-chan said as Daisuke finished looking at the undesirable school papers.

"Hmmm, yeah... I think you should take a look at this too..." Daisuke said, holding out his D-Terminal.

"I already read it earlier," Nat-chan replied, pushing the D-Terminal back to a shocked Daisuke.

"What! How did you know already, did you take a look!?" Daisuke processed out slowly in irritation as Nat-chan laughed.

"Yes, you were sleeping and snoring so loud so I looked..." Nat-chan explained while continuing to laugh.

_Am I that bad?_ Daisuke thought as he still wondered how they ended up in this world.

"Well, whatever..." Daisuke finished as he lay down again, ignoring his school work and looking up to the calm blue sky.

"Daisuke, are you not worried about when we will get back?" Nat-chan asked.

"No. Not at all actually. Besides, when we first met in a similar world like this, didn't you say it would be best 'just the two of us'?" Daisuke explained, Nat-chan recalled those memories.

**... Just the two of us**, Nat-chan offered.

**The two of us?** Daisuke asked, unsure.

**Me and you, Daisuke. Because, my voice reached you, didn't it?** Nat-chan explained.

**Yeah.** Daisuke agreed after the explanation.

"That was before and..."

"It doesn't matter! We're here to enjoy what we couldn't; it's called a 'vacation!'" Daisuke finished happily, as he reached out with one arm to pull Nat-chan closer to him while pointing to the horizon with his other hand. "See? If this place is like before, then it's just for us! No schoolteachers to eat up the time, no Perverted Demon to ruin the land, no... nothing!"

Looking out to the horizon it would seem like that the sun in this world would never go down. For the better in reality, as this scene fulfills dreams of both Daisuke and Nat-chan from before that never come true. Part of the dream is formed by Daisuke's original invitation to Hikari to the beach, where as the beach is evident in this world along with just Daisuke and Nat-chan. Nat-chan's vision was to bring Daisuke out of the world of cold and into the summer, all of which is fulfilled in one scene.

_This won't last forever I know, but while it's here, I will sure have fun on this summer vacation since I did not get the chance last few summers..._ Daisuke thought as he enjoyed the light of the sun that seems to shine life into this world.

_Daisuke sure is calm throughout all this; I guess this is what he always wanted... well, as long as we're all happy... _Nat-chan thought as she closed her eyes to enjoy the joyful silence at the scene.

Perhaps for everybody else in Odaiba this would be one great ending as life finally returns to what it used to be. However, for Daisuke and Nat-chan, this is only the beginning of the life that they always wanted...

**_Fin._**

* * *

Well, I sort of let imaginations run its course for however Nat-chan's appearance went, since there never was a cannon description of her. Another thing to note, the two of them are not dead just in a temporary paradise of sorts. Also, for those who think Daisuke-Natsu is OTP, that is one way to look at it, but other viewpoints can also just portray this as an ordinary paradise ending, your pick really.

Well, there is one more project finished... so now it is back to planning for the next fic... haha, but not posting yet... Anyway, thank you to all reviewers that have patiently waited for this slow updating (and maybe a little bit of lazy) author throughout the story. Still, this project came out OK I guess... well, back to updating those other fics of mine before the next Digimon one, hah.


End file.
